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* 


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^  iut  'mtaxnkni 


^  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^ 

Presented   b JSe^i,  S  v*(2.a\  0\ ,  C>rx^r\c\  ca\\^ 

BV  4501  .M483  1897 

Meyer,  F.  B.  1847-1929 

Saved  and  kept  I.  ^ 


"P^^^^-^  ^    ^/  .^ 


\ 


SAVED  AND  KEPT 


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SAVED  AND  KEPT 


COUNSELS   TO  YOUNG   BELIEVERS 


BY   THE   REV. 

F.  B.  "MEYER 

OF  CHRIST  CHURCH,  WESTMINSTER  BRIDGE  ROAD 
LONDON 


New  York      Chicago      Toronto 

Fleming   H.  Revell   Company 

Publishers  of  Evangelical  Literature 


Copyright,  1897,  by 
Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 


THE  NEW  YORK  TYPE-SETTING  COMPANY 
THE   CAXTON   PRESS 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Preface         5 

I.  A  Form  of  Dedication  ...  7 

II.  The  Marks  of  Genuine  Faith      .  13 

III.  "Wilt  Thou  be  Made  Whole?"  .  19 

IV.  "When    I   had   Ceased   from    my 

Struggles" 26 

V.  "Bid  Me  Come!"    .        .        .        .32 

VI.  Not  "Attain,"  but  "Obtain"     .     39 

VII.  At  the  Gate  of  the  Will   .        .     43 

VIII.  The  Control  of  our  Thoughts   .     49 

IX.  Not  Joy,  but  Christ      ...     55 

X.  The  Hour  of  Temptation     .        .     60 

XI.  The  Conqueror  from  Edom  .        .    67 

XII.  Our  Ideals 74 

XIII.  How  TO  Receive     .        .        .        .80 
3 


4 

CONTENTS 

PAGE 

XIV. 

Our  Equableness    .        .        .        . 

87 

XV. 

Unspotted 

94 

XVI. 

Use  your  Senses    . 

lOI 

XVII. 

The  Light  of  that  Day 

108 

XVIII. 

The  Secret  of  Continuance 

115 

XIX. 

One  of  God's  "Noes"  . 

122 

XX. 

Forgetting      .... 

.  129 

XXI. 

Stay  where  You  Are    . 

.  13s 

XXII. 

What  have  You  to  Give?     . 

.  141 

XXIII. 

The  Presence  of  God   . 

.  147 

PREFACE 

It  is  my  fiftieth  birthday.  Goodness  and 
mercy  have  followed  me  all  the  days  of  my 
life,  and  I  trust  I  have  entered  the  house  of 
the  Lord  to  stay  there  forever. 

But  the  review  of  the  past  brings  back  to 
memory  the  recollection  of  so  many  turned 
lessons,  so  much  failure  and  sin,  that  one 
would  despair  were  it  not  for  the  blood  that 
cleanseth  from  all  sin. 

That  past  may  be  forgiven,  but  it  cannot 
be  undone ;  and  the  only  way  to  utilize  it  is 
to  derive  lessons  and  warnings  for  the  bene- 
fit of  those  that  are  following  after.  And  so 
these  words  have  been  written,  largely  for  my 
young  sisters  and  brothers  on  each  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  and  also  for  all  who  desire  to  know 
the  secret  of  being  Saved  and  Kept. 

F.  B.  Meyer. 
Christ  Church, 
Westminster  Bridge  Road, 
April  8,  1897. 


SAVED  AND  KEPT 


A   FORM    OF   DEDICATION 

"  I  will  pay  my  vows  unto  the  Lord."— Ps.  cxvi. 
16-18. 

This  form  of  dedication  is  offered  to  be 
used  by  each  alone,  in  some  quiet  place,  as 
a  suggestion  of  some  deeper  acts. 

I  come  to  Thee,  most  blessed  Lord,  to  re- 
new my  vows.  My  soul  lies  low  in  penitence 
before  Thee,  as  I  recall  all  Thy  patience  and 
loving-kindness,  Thy  forbearance  and  tender 
pity,  toward  one  of  the  most  unworthy  of 
Thy  followers.  I  have  so  often  failed  Thee 
and  brought  shame  upon  Thy  name  ;  I  have 
disappointed  Thee,  when  I  might  have  given 
Thee  pleasure ;  I  have  thwarted  Thee,  when 
I  might  have  yielded  to  Thy  holy  purpose. 
My  only  plea  is  Thy  most  precious  blood. 
Thou  hast  magnified  Thy  mercy  in  saving  me 
7 


8  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

at  all ;  now  magnify  Thy  grace  in  forgiving 
and  restoring  my  soul.  Let  me  now  stand 
again  in  Thy  holy  presence  and  speak  with 
Thee  face  to  face. 

"  Nothing  between,  Lord,  nothing  between." 

From  this  moment  I  solemnly,  and  by  Thy 
grace,  renounce  and  put  away  the  evil  things 
which  have  usurped  an  unholy  supremacy 
with  me—  the  companionships  that  lower  the 
temperature  of  my  inner  hfe ;  the  books  and 
amusements  which  have  cast  a  shadow  on  my 
hours  of  fellowship ;  the  sin  which  so  easily 
besets  me;  the  soft  yielding  to  sloth  which 
has  robbed  ,me  of  so  many  seasons  of  hal- 
lowed communion ;  the  desire  to  please  men 
rather  than  Thee,  and  to  succeed  in  this 
world  rather  than  to  be  a  humble  servant  in 
Thy  glorious  household.  All  these  I  hereby 
steadfastly  renounce  and  forsake.  Other 
lords  have  had  dominion  over  me,  but 
henceforth  by  Thee  only  will  I  make  men- 
tion of  Thy  name.  Especially  do  I  stead- 
fastly resolve  by  Thy  grace  to  renounce  the 
devil  and  all  his  works ;  the  world  and  all  its 
vanity ;  the  flesh  and  all  its  selfish  and  sinful 
desires,  so  that  I  may  not  follow  or  be  led  by 
them.  In  myself  I  cannot  keep  these  resolu- 
tions—my will  is  Hke  a  bruised  reed,  my  de- 
sires like  smoking  flax;  but  oh,  keep  me 
true !     Thou  hast  kept  my  soul  from  death ; 


A   PORM  OF  DEDICATION  9 

wilt  Thou  not  also  keep  my  feet  from  falling, 
that  I  may  walk  before  the  Lord  in  the  light 
of  the  living?  Thou  art  able  to  keep  me 
from  stumbling  and  present  me  faultless  be- 
fore the  presence  of  Thy  glory  with  exceeding 
joy ;  into  Thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit ; 
and  I  am  persuaded  that  Thou  dost  accept 
and  wilt  keep  what  I  commit  to  Thee  against 
that  day. 

And  now,  Lord,  I  yield  myself  to  Thee, — 
spirit,  soul,  and  body,— that  as  these  were 
once  filled  and  used  by  the  Spirit  of  Evil, 
they  may  henceforth  be  filled  and  used  by  Thy 
Holy  Spirit,  who  is  one  with  Thee  and  the 
Father  in  the  mystery  of  the  Holy  Trinity. 
Never  again,  by  Thy  dear  help,  shall  sin  reign 
in  my  mortal  body,  that  I  should  obey  the 
lusts  thereof.  It  may  tempt  me  by  its  sug- 
gestions ;  but  it  shall  not  reign,  since  I  desire 
to  present  myself  unto  God  as  one  alive  from 
the  dead,  and  my  members  as  instruments  of 
righteousness  unto  God. 

In  my  iiiner  life  I  desire  to  be  kept  abso- 
lutely pure  and  lovely.  O  Holy  and  Spotless 
One,  be  in  me  the  crystal  fountain  of  purity! 
O  Lamb  of  God,  be  in  me  the  source  of  ab- 
solute meekness  and  humility!  O  Lover  of 
men,  be  in  me  a  fire  of  unwaning,  all-sub- 
duing tenderness!  Make  me  instantly  sen- 
sitive to  the  least  taint  of  impurity  and 
uncharity.     Before  ever  the  suggestion  has 


10  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

assumed  a  tangible  shape,  may  I  detect  it 
and  shelter  in  Thee. 

///  7ny  home  life  may  I  be  made  a  blessing : 
its  sunbeam  when  the  days  are  dark ;  its  in- 
spiration when  the  days  are  sad  and  hope- 
less ;  its  tender  comfort  when  the  days  are  full 
of  pain  and  tears.  Always  thinking  of  others 
before  myself;  never  imposing  my  private 
sorrows  or  moods ;  ever  with  the  girt  loin  and 
the  lighted  torch ;  washing  my  face,  and 
anointing  my  head,  and  confiding  my  griefs 
to  Thee  only,  that  I  may  ever  have 

"  A  heart  at  leisure  from  itself. 
To  soothe  and  sympathize." 

In  my  religious  life  may  the  neglect  of 

prayer  and  Thy  Holy  Word  be  things  of  the 

past.    Wake  me  morning  by  morning  to  hear 

/  as  a  disciple.    Enable  me  to  spring  up  at  Thy 

f  call,  and,  like  all  Thy  true  servants,  to  rise  up 

I  early  in  the  morning  to  gather  the  manna  ere 

\  the  dew  be  gone  from  it.     May  my  fellowship 

with  Thee  be  unbroken  through  the  day,  that 

I  may  often  look  up  into  Thy  face,  even  if  I 

have  not  time  to  speak.     Draw  me,  and  I 

will  run  after  Thee. 

"  Each  moment  call  from  earth  away 
My  soul,  that  only  waits  Thy  call." 

In  my  daily  calling  make  me  diligent  in 
business,  fervent  in  spirit,  serving  the  Lord. 


A   FORM  OF  DEDICATION  11 

May  I  do  my  work,  not  for  the  wages  I  may 
get,  nor  to  secure  an  advance,  but  so  as  to 
please  Thee.  May  it  be  the  one  object  of 
my  daily  striving  to  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God 
— not  with  eye-service,  as  pleasing  men,  but 
in  singleness  of  heart,  fearing  the  Lord,  do- 
ing the  will  of  God  as  it  is  indicated  in  the 
circumstances  of  my  life,  and  looking  for  my 
reward  from  Thy  hand,  O  divine  Master! 

In  my  use  ofinoney  I  would  not  be  anxious 
about  the  future,  nor  hoard  up  and  keep  for 
myself  of  that  which  Thou  hast  given  me ;  I 
want  to  be  Thy  very  slave,  counting  myself 
and  all  I  have  as  Thy  purchased  property,  and 
using  all  things  as  Thy  representative  and 
steward. 

In  my  use  of  time  and  health  and  all  the 
opportu7iities  of  life  I  desire  to  act  with 
reverent  care,  redeeming  the  time,  buying 
up  each  opportunity,  conserving  my  body  as 
the  pure  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  par- 
taking of  recreation,  food,  natural  scenery, 
travel,  and  all  lawful  pastimes,  that  I  may  the 
better  serve  Thy  purpose  in  my  creation  and 
redemption.  Show  me  what  my  talents  are 
which  Thou  hast  intrusted  to  me,  and  help 
me  to  make  the  two  four  and  the  five  ten. 

Now  bless  me,  even  me,  O  Lord.  I  am 
Thine  ;  Thy  Father  gave  me  to  Thee  before 
the  world  was  made ;  Thou  didst  purchase  me 
for  Thyself  by  Thy  most  precious  blood; 


12  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

ThouhastbegunagoodworkwithinmebyThy 
Holy  Spirit ;  and  now  afresh  take  me  to  Thine 
heart  and  seal  me  with  Thy  Spirit.  May  He 
enHghten,  comfort,  and  sanctify  me,  teaching 
me  to  pray,  and  opening  the  eyes  of  my  heart 
that  I  may  know  Thee  and  the  power  of  Thy 
resurrection,  that  as  Thou  hast  ascended 
into  the  heavens,  so  I  may  also  in  heart  and 
mind  thither  ascend,  and  with  Thee  continu- 
ally dwell,  who  livest  and  reignest  with  the 
Father  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  one  God,  world 
without  end.     Amen. 


II 

THE  MARKS  OF  GENUINE  FAITH 

"  He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath  everlasting 
life."— John  hi.  36. 

It  is  very  necessary  sometimes  to  ask,  es- 
pecially at  the  beginning  of  our  Christian  hfe, 
if  we  are  really  right — there  are  so  many 
counterfeits  in  the  world  and  the  church,  and 
when  once  we  have  received  the  stamp  and 
imprimatur  of  some  Christian  body  we  are 
apt  to  trust  it  as  decisive  in  all  after  time,  so 
that  when  appeals  are  addressed  to  the  un- 
converted and  halting,  we  at  once  pass  them 
off  to  others,  feehng  sure  that  they  cannot 
apply  to  ourselves.  How  often  do  souls  sit 
in  a  very  shower  of  gospel  blessing,  covered 
by  the  umbrella  of  having  been  accepted  by 
a  church,  or  of  the  approval  of  the  leaders  of 
a  Christian  Endeavor  Society,  passing  away 
to  others  what  was  meant  for,  and  needed 
by,  themselves!  When  once  unconverted 
persons  become  dubbed  as  Christians,  it  is 
the  hardest  matter  possible  to  convince  them 
13 


14  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

of  their  need  of  the  gospel.  Again,  I  say,  it 
is  most  necessary  to  be  quite  sure  that  we  are 
really  right. 

There  was  a  great  ado  recently  because 
foreign  and  inferior  goods  were  being  im- 
ported into  England  and  stamped  with  the 
mark  of  the  Sheffield  manufacturers.  They 
went  out  into  all  the  world  as  Enghsh  make, 
when,  in  point  of  fact,  they  were  the  poorest 
German.  People  did  not  think  of  question- 
ing the  genuineness  of  the  articles,  because 
they  were  assured  by  the  Sheffield  stamp. 
After  a  time  had  passed  we  can  almost 
imagine  the  articles  themselves,  thus  labeled, 
beginning  to  fancy  that  they  were  genuine, 
and  if  even  their  right  to  be  accounted  so 
were  challenged  by  the  other  cutlery  amid 
which  they  lay,  they  would  haughtily  decline 
to  enter  into  the  discussion,  content  to  quote 
the  fact  of  having  been  properly  stamped. 
"  Do  you  question  my  right  to  call  myself  a 
Sheffield  blade,  when  I  have  the  Sheffield 
stamp  so  clearly  indented  ?  "  So  men  ignore 
your  appeals  if  once  they  have  been  ac- 
counted truly  regenerate  by  the  recognized 
leaders  of  some  Christian  society. 

The  necessity  for  close  self -scrutiny  is  the 
more  obvious  when  we  come  face  to  face 
with  the  searching  words  of  the  apostle 
James.  We  have  been  wont  to  insist  on 
faith  as  the  essential  of  salvation ;  but  he  tells 


THE  MARKS  OF  GENUINE  fAITH  15 

US  that  there  are  two  kinds  of  faith,  and  it 
may  be  that,  after  all,  we  have  the  wrong 
one.  It  is  not  sufficient  to  say  we  have  faith ; 
we  must  be  sure  that  it  is  saving  faith,  which 
links  the  soul  with  the  Saviour. 

True  faith  has  Christ  for  its  object.  Many 
times  the  question  is  put  by  the  inquirer, 
"  Have  I  the  right  kind  of  faith?"  To  this 
there  is  only  one  answer:  "When  the  soul 
moves  toward  Christ  as  its  Savioiu-,  when  it 
turns  even  from  the  facts  of  His  Hfe  and 
work  to  Himself,  it  is  the  faith  of  God's 
elect,  which  He  hath  Himself  breathed  into 
the  soul."  All  faith  that  has  Christ  for  its 
object  is  the  right  kind  of  faith.  It  may 
bring  no  conscious  rapture ;  it  may  be  weak 
as  the  woman's  touch  on  His  garment  hem ; 
it  may  be  small  and  insignificant  as  a  grain 
of  mustard-seed;  it  may  be  despairful  as 
Peter's  cry,  "  Lord,  save,  or  I  perish!  "  But 
if  its  deepest  yearning  is  Christ,  Christ, 
Christ,  it  is  the  tiny  thread  which  will  bring 
the  lost  one  through  the  subterranean  pas- 
sages, in  which  it  had  surrendered  itself  as 
lost,  into  the  light  of  Hfe. 

True  faith  is  trust.  "  Trust "  is  a  more  per- 
sonal word  than  "faith."  We  believe Xh.^  re- 
cord of  history  ;  we  hsiVQ  faith  in  our  friend's 
word  of  honor ;  but  we  trust  the  one  we  love. 
In  the  beginning  of  Christian  life,  while  yet 
the  soul  is  looking  around  for  help,  it  deals 


16  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

specially  with  statements  about  Christ,  and 
perhaps  with  His  precious  promises;  but 
afterward  it  closes  in  with  Christ  Himself, 
and  from  that  moment  it  rests,  not  on  the 
deed,  but  on  the  Doer ;  not  on  the  word,  but 
on  Him  who  uttered  it;  not  on  the  atone- 
ment, but  on  Him  who  died;  not  on  the 
resurrection,  but  on  Him  who  rose ;  not  on 
the  intercession,  but  on  Him  who  ever  liveth 
to  make  it. 

True  faith  reckons  o?i  God's  faith.  Spurious 
faith  tries  to  confirm  itself  by  culling  the  fa- 
vorable reports  that  others  give  it,  or  by  con- 
sidering the  amount  of  religiousness  with 
which  it  is  accompanied.  It  is  always  eager 
to  maintain  a  certain  frame  or  atmosphere  of 
this  same  religiousness,  in  order  to  assure  it- 
self that  it  is  not  a  counterfeit.  But  a  true 
faith  looks  away  from  all  such  considerations 
to  God,  and  reckons  that  He  is  true ;  that 
He  cannot  disavow  His  offspring ;  that  He 
cannot  fail  the  soul  He  has  attracted  to  Him- 
self ;  that  He  must  meet  it  when  it  is  a  great 
way  off,  and  spread  the  feast.  There  is  no 
better  way  of  nurturing  faith  than  by  looking 
away  from  it  to  its  object.  When  you  be- 
lieve not,  He  remaineth  faithful.  Give  up 
estimating  the  force  of  your  faith,  or  search- 
ing for  the  roots  of  it,  or  analyzing  its 
component  parts.  Begin  to  consider  the 
impossibility  of  God  denying  Himself,  and 


THE  MARKS  OF  GENUINE  FAITH  17 

as  you  do  so  the  true  faith  will  stir  within 
you ;  by  considering  God's  faith,  your  faith 
will  grow  strong  to  remove  mountains. 

The  true  faith  is  followed  by  penitence.  Re- 
pentance and  penitence  differ  vastly.  Re- 
pentance precedes  and  accompanies  faith; 
penitence  follows  it.  Repentance  has  its  seat 
in  the  will ;  penitence  in  the  emotions.  Re- 
pentance is  the  forsaking  of  sin ;  penitence 
the  abhorring  and  grieving  for  it.  Repen- 
tance may  therefore  take  place  once  for  all, 
as  we  turn  from  our  evil  life  to  God ;  peni- 
tence runs  parallel  with  all  Christian  experi- 
ence. The  nearer  we  come  to  Christ  the 
more  we  grieve  for  the  sorrow  we  have  given 
Him.  When  the  woman  reached  the  feet  of 
Christ,  and  knew  herself  forgiven,  she  cov- 
ered them  with  tears  and  kisses.  The  faith 
which  is  dry-eyed  is  a  very  doubtful  sort. 

Tn^e  faith  detaches  froin  the  world  and  si7i 
in  proportion  as  it  attaches  to  Christ.  It 
clings  to  Him,  and  is  so  taken  up  with  His 
love  and  beauty  that  it  loses  a  taste  for  what 
had  before  filled  its  horizon  and  had  seemed 
altogether  essential  to  its  existence.  Its  trea- 
sure is  in  heaven,  and  its  heart  is  there  also. 

True  faith  bears  fruit.  We  have  said  it  is 
the  link  between  Christ  and  the  soul  through 
which  the  living  energy  of  Christ  pours  into 
us,  as  the  sap  from  the  root  to  the  cluster  of 
ruddy  grapes  swelHng  on  the  branch.     It  is 


18  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

impossible  to  be  in  true  union  with  Christ 
without  feeling  the  pulse  of  His  glorious  life, 
and  where  it  enters  like  a  tidal  river  it  can 
have  but  one  result— it  must  manifest  itself  in 
fruit.  When  there  is  no  fruit  either  the  chan- 
nel is  grievously  choked  or  has  never  been 
truly  formed. 

It  is  well,  therefore,  now  and  then,  to  take 
the  enumeration  of  fruit  given  in  Galatians 
v.,  and  to  stay  prayerfully  over  each  grace, 
questioning  whether  it  is  present,  and,  being 
present,  if  it  is  becoming  more  marked  in 
our  experience.  Do  not  trouble  about  the 
roots;  consider  the  fruit.  Examine  your- 
selves whether  ye  be  in  the  faith. 

If  you  have  not  faith,  or  fear  that  your 
faith  is  wrong,  do  not  despair  or  give  way  to 
introspection.  Look  away  to  Jesus.  Open 
your  heart  that  God  may  put  into  it  the  gift 
of  the  true  faith.  Believe  He  does  so  at  the 
moment  of  your  asking.  Go  forth  and  live 
in  the  power  of  that  behef.  Reckon  that 
God  is  true.  Feed  your  faith  on  its  native 
bread — the  Word  of  God.  Nourish  it  by 
chmbing  to  the  heights  of  communion,  where 
it  may  breathe  its  native  air. 


Ill 

"WILT  THOU  BE  MADE  WHOLE?" 

John  v.  6. 

In  one  of  the  five  porches  of  the  Pool  of 
Siloam,  for  thirty-eight  years,  this  man  had 
lain  until  hope  had  died  out.  He  had  made 
so  many  ineffectual  attempts  to  reach  the 
troubled  water  when  it  was  impregnated  with 
heaUng  virtue!  Time  after  time— so  often 
that  he  had  long  lost  count— he  had  dragged 
himself  almost  to  the  edge,  but  there  was  al- 
ways some  one  else,  either  nimbler  of  limb, 
or  better  provided  with  a  little  band  of  help- 
ers, whose  love  had  made  them  dexterous. 
Always  some  other  man  stepped  down  before 
him!  Always  the  hope  was  deferred!  So 
the  eyes  grew  weary  of  watching  for  the 
mysterious  motion  of  the  water,  and  even  if 
heaUng  should  come,  life  was  too  far  gone  to 
make  it  specially  valuable.  To  him  Christ 
came  with  the  appeal,  "  Wilt  thou  be  made 
whole?  "  (John  v.  6.) 
19 


20  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

He  was  suffering  from  paralysis,  which  had 
affected  his  motor  nerves.  He  knew  exactly 
what  he  wanted  to  do,  and  the  hmbs  with 
which  to  do  it ;  his  brain  was  perfectly  able 
to  issue  its  commands,  but  there  was  no 
power  of  transmitting  the  nervous  energy  so 
as  to  react  upon  the  muscles  and  through 
them  on  the  limbs.  To  know  how  to  do  was 
present  with  him;  but  how  to  perform  that 
which  was  good  he  found  not.  He  often  lay 
and  pondered  with  himself  some  swifter 
means  of  reaching  the  pool;  but  when  the 
moment  arrived  for  executing  his  purpose  the 
deep-seated  paralysis  put  an  arrest  on  his 
plan. 

We  all  suffer  more  or  less  from  a  similar 
paralysis.  Have  you  never  sat  in  a  public 
conveyance,  and  desired  to  speak  to  some 
lonely  girl  or  lad,  and  felt  the  message  petri- 
fied upon  your  lips  ?  That  is  the  paralysis  of 
speech.  Have  you  never  felt  that  you  ought 
to  give  to  some  crying  case  of  need,  but  the 
opportunity  has  passed  and  the  unfortunate 
drifted  away  into  the  dark?  That  is  the 
paralysis  of  benevolence.  Have  you  never 
felt  the  conception  of  an  unselfish  act  beck- 
oning you  to  a  life  or  an  act  of  self-giving, 
but  the  vision  has  died  away,  leaving  you 
wrapped  up  in  the  pursuit  of  your  own  aims 
and  dehghts?  That  is  the  paralysis  of  well- 
doing.   ' '  Withered  "  is  a  very  accurate  epithet 


'*WILT  THOU  BE  MADE  WHOLE?''  21 

for  much  of  our  life.  The  sensory  nerves 
convey  the  impressions  from  without,  but  the 
motor  nerves  of  the  moral  nature  fail  to  obey 
the  promptings  of  the  will.  To  us,  too,  Jesus 
says,  "  Wilt  thou  be  made  whole?  " 

Whole!  That  would  mean  that  the  life 
should  obey  the  noblest  ideas  that  pass  across 
our  inner  vision ;  that  would  mean  that  there 
should  be  no  break  between  the  divine  in- 
spirations and  our  fulfilment;  that  would 
mean  that  when  God  called  us  by  name  we 
should,  like  Abraham,  answer,  "  Here  am  I ! " 
and  start  early  in  the  morning,  though  it  were 
to  the  mountain  of  sacrifice.  Whole!  That 
means  the  single  eye,  perfected  consecration, 
the  response  to  the  cup  and  cross  without 
murmiuing  or  complaint. 

The  primary  condition  of  bei?ig  made  ivhole 
is  in  the  will.  Wilt  thou  be  made  whole? 
Granted  that  the  will  has  become  enfeebled 
by  constantly  yielding  its  scepter  to  passion, 
— like  one  of  the  early  English  kings,  a  mere 
puppet  in  the  hands  of  strong  barons, — yet 
Christ  must  know  that  its  choice  is  on  His 
side  before  He  will  set  on  foot  the  health- 
giving  processes.  He  is  prepared  to  be  told 
that  the  will  is  vacillating  and  weak.  This 
is  no  disappointment.  He  is  well  able  to 
work  in  us  to  will  and  to  do,  when  once  the 
will  has  made  its  appeal  to  Him.  The  gov- 
ernor of  a  province  might  be  overpowered 


22  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

by  a  revolt  and  yet  be  true  in  his  allegiance 
to  his  suzerain. 

Wilt  thou,  young  soul,  be  made  whole? 
You  have  been  double-minded ;  will  you  have 
the  single  eye?  You  have  been  double- 
hearted;  will  you  have  the  single  purpose? 
You  have  been  infirm  in  purpose,  cowardly 
in  confession,  paralyzed  in  action;  do  you 
choose  at  whatever  cost  to  be  made  whole, 
as  those  angels  that  excel  in  strength  and  do 
His  commandments,  hearkening  unto  the 
voice  of  His  word?  Are  you  willing  to  be 
made  whole — though  it  should  involve  you 
in  obloquy  and  scorn;  though  it  mean  the 
loss  of  companionships  that  have  been  as  the 
apple  of  your  eye,  and  the  forsaking  of  those 
scenes  which  are  familiar  as  the  porch  where 
this  man  had  sheltered  for  thirty-eight  years? 
Tell  the  Saviour  so !  Discover  the  one  point 
in  your  character  in  which  this  moral  pa- 
ralysis has  worked  most  disastrously.  Tell 
Christ  you  are  eager  to  be  made  whole  just 
there ;  and  He  who  knows  the  length  of  time 
that  you  have  been  in  this  evil  case  will  not 
fail  to  heal  and  make  you  every  whit  whole. 

The  second  step  is  to  claim  His  healifig 
virtue.  That  man's  faith,  opened  by  the 
question  of  Christ,  received  from  Him  heal- 
ing virtue.  He  did  not  supplicate,  or  agonize, 
or  even  pray.  He  just  looked,  received,  and 
was  whole.     You  do  not  need  strong  faith 


''WILT  THOU  BE  MADE  WHOLE?''  23 

for  this,  but  Christ.  The  whole  ocean  may 
flow  through  a  narrow  aperture  if  you  will 
give  it  time  enough.  In  fact,  the  weaker  your 
faith  is  the  better  will  be  your  chance  with 
Christ.  Whom  would  you  save  first  in  a 
wreck — the  man  in  whom  hfe  is  strong,  or 
the  child  whose  tiny  hand  is  waxing  weary? 
Surely  the  latter.  Weakness  has  a  prior 
claim  than  strength.  I  have  known  a  strong 
man,  the  Samson  of  the  country-side,  bend  to 
the  earth  before  the  thin  arms  of  his  sickly 
child  stretched  out  toward  him.  He  would 
pass  by  the  healthy  lads  and  girls  of  the 
family  to  give  himself  to  the  little  helpless 
cripple.  Suppose  a  fire  were  to  break  out  in 
that  man's  cottage ;  would  he  not  save  that 
withered  nursling  before  the  children  who 
were  well  able  to  help  themselves?  In  His 
earthly  life  our  Lord  gave  Himself  to  the 
woman  wasted  with  twelve  years  of  sickness, 
to  the  sheep  bleating  piteously  in  the  thicket, 
to  the  bruised  reeds  and  the  feebly  smoking 
flax.  So  it  is  now  when  weakness  appeals 
to  Him  ;  the  weaker  your  faith  the  more  likely 
you  are  to  get  a  swift  and  sufficient  answer. 
I  know  very  well  how  hopeless  it  seems 
ever  to  conquer  where  you  have  so  often 
failed.  Your  own  energy  and  natural  force 
can  never  meet  the  case;  but  this  is  the 
province  of  the  Saviour.  The  whole  need 
not  the  physician,  but  they  that  are  sick ;  and 


24  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

He  comes  to  make  the  sick  whole.  BeHeve 
that  in  Him  is  the  complement  of  your  need ; 
that  He  does  more  than  heal,  because  He 
can  make  what  used  to  be  your  weakness 
your  strength,  and  what  had  been  your  per- 
petual failure  the  most  noticeable  grace  in 
your  character.  It  seems  impossible,  but  to 
God  all  things  are  possible. 

"  The  most  impossible  of  all 

Is  that  from  sin  I  e'er  should  cease ; 
Yet  shall  it  be— I  know  it  shall! 

Jesus,  look  to  Thy  faithfulness ! 
Since  nothing  is  too  hard  for  Thee, 
All  things  are  possible  to  me." 

TJien  take  up  your  bed  and  walk.  Do  not 
attempt  to  put  forth  this  limb  or  the  other  to 
see  if  He  has  imparted  strength  enough. 
This  is  to  distrust  Him.  Believe  that  He 
has  healed  you.  Act  faith.  Start  upon  the 
level  on  which  you  would  hve  if  yon  felt  en- 
tirely whole.  He  has  made  you  whole  if  you 
have  truly  trusted  Him,  though  you  do  not 
as  yet  feel  it.  Take  up  your  bed,  the  emblem 
of  your  helpless  paralysis  ;  wrap  it  together — 
you  need  it  no  more.  It  has  carried  you; 
now  carry  it.  You  need  go  to  no  man  to  put 
you  into  the  pool ;  you  have  Christ.  You  re- 
quire no  longer  the  angel-stirred  pool ;  you  are 
possessed  of  a  hf  e  which  is  independent  of  the 
stirrings  of  God's  angels.     You  are  whole; 


"WILT  THOU  BE  MADE  WHOLE?''  25 

live  a  whole  life  in  the  power  of  the  spirit  of 
life  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 

This  more  than  anything  else  will  convince 
men  and  prepare  them  to  listen  to  your  tes- 
timony for  your  Saviour:  that  you  should 
stand  where  you  have  so  often  fallen;  that 
you  should  overcome  where  you  have  so  often 
been  defeated.  But  this  new  Hfe  shall  be 
yours  through  the  grace  of  Jesus  communi- 
cated to  your  faith,  as  you  abide  in  Him  and 
He  abides  in  you. 


IV 


"WHEN    I    HAD    CEASED    FROM 
MY   STRUGGLES" 

"  Therefore  will  the  Lord  wait,  that  He  may  be 
gracious  unto  you."— Is  A.  XXX.  i8. 

There  is  nothing  else  for  you  but  to  come 
to  this.  As  long  as  you  wrestle  with  God 
you  miss  His  richest  blessings.  Your  hands 
are  so  occupied  with  your  grasping  and 
wrenching  that  they  are  not  open  enough  to 
receive  His  choice  bestowments  of  hfe  and 
peace.  Jacob  wrestled  with  God  the  whole 
night  and  was  no  further  advanced.  It  was 
when  he  could  wrestle  no  more,  because  the 
sinew  of  his  strength  was  shriveled,  and  he 
was  near  falling,  and  clung  to  the  angel  help- 
less and  exhausted,  that  he  received  the 
blessing  which  made  him  a  prince  for  the 
remainder  of  his  days. 

Is  not  this  the  mistake  of  your  life?    You 

have  fought  for  the  blessing ;  with  strong  cry- 

ings  and  tears  you  have  made  supplication 

and  sought  to  prevail ;  you  have  been  almost 

26 


"  CEASED  FROM  MY  STRUGGLES''    27 

angry  because  you  could  not  get  what  others 
had.  Now  he  down  at  the  feet  of  Christ,  a 
broken  and  emptied  vessel,  and  see  if  He  will 
not  take  you  in  hand  and  fill  you  to  over- 
flowing. "  By  strength  shall  no  man  prevail." 
"  Not  of  works,  lest  any  man  should  boast." 

Suppose  a  man  inexperienced  to  the  water 
were  drowning,  how  would  you  save  him? 
Would  you  dare  to  put  yourself  in  the  way 
of  his  hands?  Were  you  to  do  so  he  would 
drag  you  with  him  to  the  bottom.  As  long 
as  he  struggles  you  can  do  little  for  him  ;  you 
must  swim  around  in  easy  reach  till  he  is  ex- 
hausted and  about  to  sink  in  despair,  then 
you  come  up  from  behind  and  support  him 
through  the  water  to  the  land.  That  is  how 
God  acts.  He  waits  that  He  may  be  gra- 
cious (Isa.  XXX.  1 8).  You  think  that  He 
takes  no  notice  of  your  tears  and  prayers  and 
agonies.  Ah,  but  He  does!  And  He  is  not 
waiting  because  wanting  in  grace.  He  is 
waiting  that  He  may  show  it.  He  cannot 
show  His  grace  till  you  lie  low  and  broken 
and  helpless  at  His  feet ;  then  He  will  say, 
"  I  am  thy  salvation." 

This  is  wonderfully  illustrated  in  that  chap- 
ter of  Isaiah.  Shebna  and  other  Hebrew 
poHticians  were  extremely  anxious  to  form  a 
great  confederation  of  contiguous  states  to 
oppose  the  growing  power  of  Assyria,  which 
had  already  carried  Samaria  into  captivity  and 


28  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

was  threatening  the  remoter  kingdoms  as 
with  the  long  arms  of  an  octopus. 

At  the  time  of  which  Isaiah  writes  am- 
bassadors were  crossing  the  strip  of  desert 
between  Canaan  and  Egypt — the  home  of 
the  young  Hon  and  flying  serpent— to  nego- 
tiate an  alliance  with  the  reigning  dynasty  of 
the  Pharaohs.  A  graphic  picture  is  given  of 
the  asses  and  camels  laden  with  treasure 
patiently  plodding  their  way  over  the  heavy 
sands.  Against  this  confederacy  Isaiah  pro- 
tested with  all  his  might.  In  his  judgment 
it  was  a  denial  of  Jehovah's  protectorate ;  it 
was  an  unworthy  appeal  to  worldly  alliances ; 
it  was  a  poHcy  foredoomed  to  fail.  "  For 
Egypt  helpeth  in  vain,  and  to  no  purpose: 
therefore  have  I  called  her  Rahab  that  sitteth 
still"  (R.  v.).  '*  Woe  to  the  rebelHous  chil- 
dren,  saith  the  Lord,  that  take  counsel,  but 
not  of  Me ;  and  that  make  a  league,  but  not 
of  My  spirit." 

But  Isaiah  was  not  satisfied  with  denounc- 
ing the  wrong ;  he  vehemently  entreated  them 
to  return  to  rest,  and  repent  and  beheve,  to 
give  up  Egypt  and  trust  simply  in  the  hving 
God.  He  said  that  God  was  not  unmindful 
of  their  needs,  and  was  only  waiting  till  they 
had  abandoned  all  their  own  efforts  and  en- 
deavors, and  were  wiUing  to  let  Him  save 
them  in  His  own  way.  "  Therefore  will  the 
Lord  wait,  that  He  may  be  gracious  unto 


"  CEASED  FROM  MY  STRUGGLES''    29 

you :  .  .  .  blessed  are  all  they  that  wait  for 
Him." 

How  truly  is  this  applicable  to  you! 

To  those  who  are  burdejied  with  a  sense  of 
sin.  You  have  been  trying,  like  Christian,  to 
rid  yourself  of  your  burden,  and  have  been 
to  Mr.  Worldly  Wiseman,  to  Madame  Bub- 
ble, and  to  Mount  Sinai.  You  have  piled 
up  penance  and  almsgiving  and  good  works. 
You  have  agonized  and  wrestled  and  en- 
treated, but  all  has  been  in  vain.  Now  to 
quiet.  Your  gigantic  struggles  have  been 
drawing  the  knots  tighter.  Be  still  and  know 
that  God  can  save  you.  He  has  been  wait- 
ing all  this  while  to  save  you,  and  as  soon  as 
you  come  to  an  end  of  yourself  He  will  begin. 
He  is  exalted  that  He  may  have  mercy- 
exalted  to  the  cross  and  to  the  throne.  He 
will  be  very  gracious  at  the  voice  of  thy  cry. 

It  is  told  of  Sancho  Panza,  in  the  great 
Spanish  story,  that  he  hung  for  hours  to  a 
window-ledge,  fearing  to  lose  his  hold  lest  he 
should  drop  through  many  yards  and  be 
maimed  for  life,  and  when,  after  much  an- 
guish, he  could  hold  out  no  longer,  and 
dropped,  it  was  only  a  few  inches  and  he 
had  reached  the  ground.  So  you  have  only 
to  let  yourself  go,  and  you  will  find  the  ever- 
lasting arms  just  beneath. 

To  those  who  are  seeking  rest.  We  often 
seek  rest  in  the  wrong  way.     We  think  we 


30  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

must  go  down  lower  into  humiliation,  or  climb 
up  into  a  higher  experience.  We  go  back- 
ward and  forward  like  birds  that  have  got 
imprisoned  in  a  room,  and  persist  in  flying  to 
and  fro,  refusing  to  let  themselves  be  caught 
by  the  hand  which  longs  to  capture  them 
only  to  fling  them  out  through  the  window 
into  the  sunny  air. 

It  is  just  ceasing  from  your  own  works. 
The  whole  secret  is  in  that  word  "cease."  He 
that  hath  entered  into  God's  rest  ceases  from 
his  own  works  as  God  did  from  His.  Cease 
from  self,  from  your  own  endeavors  after 
rest,  from  going  after  this  teacher  and  the 
other;  sink  down  like  a  tired  child  on  the 
pillow  of  God's  loving  care.  Lean  back  on 
God.  God  loves ;  God  cares ;  God  will  in- 
terpose when  the  right  moment  is  come. 
God  will  do  the  very  best  that  can  be  done. 
He  is  waiting  to  do  it  as  soon  as  you  will  let 
Him.     Trust  and  rest. 

To  those  who  are  seeking  deliverance  from 
besetting  sin,  or  a  holier  life,  or  success  in 
Christian  work.  There  is  but  one  law  for 
all  experiences.  It  is  not  of  him  that  willeth 
or  of  him  that  runneth,  but  of  God  that 
showeth  mercy.  God  longs  to  deliver  from 
besetting  sin;  longs  to  lead  to  a  life  of  full 
consecration  and  Holy  Spirit  possession; 
longs  to  make  the  utmost  use  of  each  vessel 
whom  He  has  purchased.     He  waits  to  be 


"  CEASED  FROM  MY  STRUGGLES"    31 

gracious.  But  His  loving  work  is  in  suspense 
until  the  excitement,  the  oscillation,  the  rest- 
less fever  is  subdued. 

Call  back  the  ambassadors  from  Egypt; 
break  off  the  coalition  with  the  Gentiles ;  call 
in  your  thoughts.  Isaac  Taylor  said  of  his 
sister  that  she  refused  invitations  to  friends' 
houses  when  death  was  drawing  near,  in 
order  that  she  might  call  home  her  thoughts. 
Call  home  your  thoughts  and  be  still.  Rest 
in  the  Lord  and  wait  patiently  for  Him.  Be 
silent  to  Him.  So  He  will  be  gracious. 
This  is  His  method.  He  is  a  God  of  judg- 
ment, i.e.,  of  method.  Comply  with  His 
method,  and  His  grace  will  flow  to  you  as  a 
river. 


"BID   ME    COME!" 

**  Lord,  if  it  be  Thou,  bid  me  come  unto  Thee  on 
the  water."— Matt.  xiv.  28. 

Christ  comes  to  us  all— to  the  gutter 
child  prompted  to  divide  her  taffy  with  her 
little  brother;  to  the  girl  following  an  ideal 
purity  through  the  polluting  associations  of 
some  miserable  home ;  to  the  man  of  business 
who  turns  aside  from  the  selfish  maxims  of 
his  competitors  to  succor  a  comrade  over- 
taken by  misfortune;  to  the  heathen  catch- 
ing sight  of  some  loftier  truth  than  the  priests 
of  idolatry  ever  taught  him,  and  following  it 
Hke  a  white  bird.  To  all  such,  and,  indeed, 
to  all  men.  He  comes,  who  as  the  true  Light 
lighteth  every  man  coming  into  the  world. 

To  some  He  comes  in  the  spring  of  life, 
when  the  number  of  the  days  behind  is  few 
and  of  those  before  many ;  He  descends  the 
woodland  glade,  the  piles  of  deep  soft  moss 
muffling  His  footfall,  the  flowers  springing 
back  from  His  Hght  tread.  He  makes  His 
32 


''BID  ME   COME!''  33 

presence  known  in  the  caress  of  the  mother 
pleading  with  her  child  to  give  its  heart  to 
the  Master  of  life,  in  the  word  of  the  teacher 
or  minister.  To  others  He  comes  in  summer- 
tide,  as  life  is  reaching  its  prime  and  thought 
is  becoming  mature,  and  when  opportunity 
has  been  given  to  compare  between  a  hfe 
full  of  accessories  apart  from  Him,  and  one 
with  Him  apart  from  all  accessories,  and  be- 
tween these  two  the  choice  has  been  clearly 
and  dehberately  made. 

Probably  Christ  oftenest  comes  through 
the  night  and  storm,  when  the  wind  is  con- 
trary and  the  strength  giving  out,  when  the 
sky  is  black  with  the  hurrying  clouds,  and  the 
wind  churns  the  water  into  a  yeasty  foam; 
when  the  hopes  of  former  years  have  been 
disappointed,  and  the  light  that  shone  so 
brightly  has  faded  ;  when  ill  health  oppresses, 
when  heart  and  flesh  fail,  when  our  days  are 
bereft  of  the  souls  that  made  them  speed 
quick  as  a  meteor  flash ;  when  the  fire  burns 
low  in  the  grate,  when  sin  and  sorrow  have 
played  sad  havoc  ^^^th  us — then  our  troubles 
and  losses  make  the  pavement  of  His  feet, 
and  through  the  storm,  nay,  by  means  of  the 
storm,  the  Master  says,  "  I  have  come." 

At  first,  it  may  be,  Christ  is  only  a  vision,  a 
new  hope,  a  ship  that  may  come  within  hail, 
a  probability,  an  //.  We  have  heard  of  the 
great  things  He  has  done  for  others ;  we  have 


34  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

been  arrested  by  the  beauty  of  His  portrait 
in  the  gospels ;  we  have  dreamed  of  Him  as 
a  radiant  being,  with  the  power  of  distribut- 
ing heahng  and  help.  We  would  like  to  be- 
lieve in  Him  and  to  learn  those  deep  secrets 
which  have  ht  up  the  lives  of  so  many 
around.  We  feel  that  if  we  could  but  once 
get  to  His  side  He  would  answer  our  ques- 
tions, realize  our  ideals,  satisfy  our  passionate 
craving  for  love ;  and  therefore,  though  we 
cling  to  the  boat,  and  to  the  comrades  whose 
toils  we  have  been  sharing,  we  finally  resolve 
to  make  the  venture.  When  a  lull  comes  in 
the  howl  of  the  wind  we  say  faintly,  "  If  it 
be  Thou,  bid  me  come." 

There  is  this  beauty  about  the  dealings  of 
Christ  our  Saviour:  He  does  not  tantalize 
us,  presenting  an  ideal  or  a  vision  of  a  better 
life  which  He  will  not  or  cannot  communi- 
cate. The  very  idea  of  His  incarnation  was 
that  He  should  set  us  an  example  that  we 
should  follow  in  His  steps.  If  He  lived 
wholly  for  God,  we  can ;  if  He  spent  much 
time  in  prayer,  we  may ;  if  He  bore  the  con- 
tradiction of  sinners  against  Himself  without 
a  single  word  of  recrimination,  it  is  possible 
for  us  to  do  so ;  if  out  of  death  He  became 
fruitful  of  life,  there  is  no  reason  why  our 
death  should  not  have  a  similar  issue ;  if  He 
walks  the  water,  we  may  be  sure  it  is  not  His 
intention  merely  to  dazzle  or  startle  us,  as  the 


**BID  ME   COME!''  35 

acrobats  at  some  country  fair  the  open-eyed 
villagers,  but  that  we  may  come  to  Him  and 
walk  with  Him  on  the  waves.  It  is  always 
right  to  say  to  Jesus,  "Where  Thou  art  I 
would  be  ;  what  Thou  art  doing  I  would  do ; 
where  Thy  feet  are  mine  would  find  a  foot- 
hold.    Bid  me  come!" 

Bid  me  come  m  the  life  of  filial  trust. 
Christ's  Ufe  was  as  free  from  care  as  that  of 
the  bees  among  the  limes.  Amid  the  strife 
of  men  and  the  fret  of  daily  circumstance  He 
leaned  back  on  the  bosom  of  God ;  never 
alone,  because  the  Father  was  with  Him; 
never  in  need  which  the  Father  would  not 
supply ;  always  at  rest,  ever  serene  and  tran- 
quil, perpetually  hidden  in  the  secret  of  the 
divine  tabernacle  from  the  strife  and  babble 
of  human  tongues.  Ah,  exquisite  vision! 
We  see  the  Hfe  gliding  over  the  waves  that 
threaten  to  engulf  us.  We  wish  that  it  might 
be  ours.  But  let  us  not  be  content  with  long- 
ings and  regretful  contrasts ;  let  us  say,  "  Bid 
me  come,  that  my  hfe  may  drink  deep  into 
Thy  spirit,  and  keep  step  with  Thee  over  the 
water." 

Bid  fne  come  in  the  life  of  prayer.  In  this 
our  Lord  might  have  done  less  than  we,  but 
probably  He  did  more.  Amid  His  activities 
He  always  made  time  for  the  mountain 
height ;  amid  His  sufferings  it  was  in  prayer 
that  He  found  solace  and  strength ;  amid  the 


36  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

many  demands  that  laid  their  withered  hands 
upon  His  garment's  hem,  it  was  in  prayer  that 
He  replenished  the  virtue  that  was  always 
streaming  out.  From  His  own  exercises  He 
gathered  the  exhortations  and  precepts  which 
have  opened  the  way  of  prayer  for  His  fol- 
lowers. Here  again  the  radiant  vision  comes 
across  the  sea  of  time — so  calm  amid  the 
storm,  so  elevated  above  the  -waves.  And 
we  do  well  to  ask  Him  to  empower  us  to 
pray  as  He  did.  Bid  us  come!  Teach  us 
to  pray!  Help  us  to  leave  the  formal,  care- 
less prayers  of  the  past,  and  to  step  out  into 
fellowship  with  Thy  mighty  intercessions. 

Bid  me  co?ne  to  the  same  pitch  of  holy  devo- 
tion and  consecration.  There  was  no  pause  in 
His  hfe  of  devotion  to  His  Father's  will— 
always  the  devoted  Servant,  ever  the  obe- 
dient Son,  instant  in  season  and  out  of  season 
to  do  the  work  with  which  the  Father  had 
intrusted  Him.  With  steadfast  face  He 
made  for  His  cross  ;  with  unswerving  purpose 
He  accomplished  our  redemption.  We  might 
well  wish  for  this.  Days  in  which  the  high 
purpose  of  our  life  has  faltered  come  back  to 
memory;  hours  when  we  have  sunk  down 
wearily  to  indolence  and  lethargy  ;  moments 
when  we  have  looked  back  to  the  cities  of 
the  plain,  unable  to  face  the  rugged  path  of 
the  cross.  What  a  contrast  between  that 
heroic  figure  pressing  through  the  storm,  and 


''BID  ME   COME/''  37 

the  vacillation  which  has  made  us  shrink  from 
entering  into  conflict  with  its  fury !  "  Bid  us 
come  "  is  a  prayer  which  we  do  well  to  offer. 
His  commands  are  enablings.  With  His 
word  there  goes  power.  Whatever  He  says 
to  us  we  can  do.     Bid  us  come! 

In  all  time  of  our  tribulation  bid  us  come 
to  Thee  for  patience.  In  all  time  of  our 
wealth  bid  us  come  to  Thee  for  humility. 
In  the  hour  of  temptation  bid  us  come  to 
Thee  for  succor.  In  the  hour  when  faith  is 
small  bid  us  come  to  Thee  for  strength. 
And  in  the  solemn  moment  when  we  stand 
on  the  confines  of  time  bid  us  come  to  Thee 
across  the  space  of  dark  water,  that  where 
Thou  art  we  may  be  also. 

In  all  such  coming  there  must  be  leaving. 
We  must  come  down  out  of  the  boat.  With 
some  that  boat  represents  prejudice;  with 
others  mistrust.  The  self-life  in  one  of  its 
many  forms  is  as  dear  to  us  as  that  boat  to 
Peter.  Our  resolutions  and  energies  and  en- 
deavors appear  at  times  to  be  the  only  plank 
between  us  and  destruction.  But  as  long  as 
we  hold  on  to  any  one  of  these  we  inevitably 
miss  the  freedom,  luxury,  and  glory  of  walking 
with  Christ  on  the  waves.  Who  would  not 
prefer  the  freedom  of  the  sea-bird's  flight  to 
the  narrow  confinement  of  the  creaking  boat? 
Yet  such  is  the  contrast  between  faith  and 
sight,  between  a  life  of  fellowship  with  the 


38  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

risen  Saviour  and  one  of  toiling  in  rowing. 
What  is  better,  then,  than  to  Hft  perpetually 
the  cry,  as  any  vision  of  Christ  passes  across 
our  mind,  "  If  it  be  Thou,  bid  me  come  unto 
Thee  on  the  water  "  ? 


VI 

NOT   "ATTAIN,"   BUT   "OBTAIN" 
"  I  am  come  that  they  might  have  life."— John  x.  io. 

A  YOUNG  Christian  girl  told  me  recently 
that  she  entered  the  life  of  unbroken  fellow- 
ship and  victory  by  noticing  the  distinction 
between  these  two  words.  For  years  she 
had  been  endeavoring  to  attain  to  a  certain 
standard  of  rest  and  peace  and  power,  but 
each  year  she  seemed  to  get  farther  from  the 
mark.  One  evening,  however,  she  happened, 
as  we  say,  to  go  to  a  little  prayer-meeting,  at 
which  there  were  only  three  persons  present 
besides  the  minister  who  was  conducting  it. 
While  giving  out  a  hymn  he  quietly  looked 
up  and  said,  "You  see,  my  friends,  this  is 
something  which  we  cannot  attain,  but  must 
obtain."  From  that  moment  she  saw  that 
all  that  was  needful  for  the  noblest  hfe  had 
been  accomplished  and  won  by  the  Saviour, 
and  that  she  had  only  to  receive.  From 
that  moment  an  exceeding  great  light  has 
filled  her  soul. 

39 


40  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

Perhaps  the  distinction  will  help  some  of 
my  readers.  You  will  never  get  the  blessed- 
ness for  which  you  long  by  struggling  and 
agonizing,  by  your  vehement  cries  and  pray- 
ers, by  your  determined  resolutions  and  en- 
deavors ;  but  by  stilling  yourself  before  God, 
and  quietly  appropriating  the  abundance  of 
grace  and  of  the  gift  of  righteousness,  which 
are  in  Christ  Jesus. 

Did  you  attain  forgiveness  and  salvation  at 
the  outset  of  your  Christian  hfe  by  an  effort 
of  yours?  Certainly  you  did  not.  You  may 
have  tried  to  do  so  for  long  years,  but  no 
peace  or  joy  came  ;  you  became  more  miser- 
able and  hopeless;  the  wicket-gate  and  its 
shining  light  were  farther  off  than  ever.  At 
last,  when  you  had  come  to  an  end  of  your- 
self, one  day  you  looked  up  and  saw  Jesus 
standing,  and  He  offered  you,  without  money 
and  without  price,  without  any  equivalent  on 
your  part,  forgiveness,  righteousness,  peace, 
and  joy.  You  simply  received.  You  took 
what  He  offered  ;  you  obtained  as  a  gift  what 
you  could  never  have  attained  as  a  guerdon. 
This  is  precisely  the  attitude  you  must  adopt 
with  respect  to  all  other  gifts  and  graces  in 
Christian  living. 

You  cannot  aftam  that  victory  over  beset- 
ting sin  which  shall  enable  you  to  walk 
worthy  of  the  gospel  and  of  your  Lord ;  you 
have  fought  and  wrestled  for  it  in  vain  for 


NOT ''attain;'  BUT ''OBTAIN''     41 

years  and  always  been  worsted.  But  you  can 
obtai?i  it  by  the  up-glance  of  the  eye  of  faith 
to  the  Lord  Jesus,  who  has  overcome  all  our 
foes,  and  holds  in  His  hand  the  taHsman  of 
victory. 

You  cannot  attain  that  power  in  service 
before  which  hard  hearts  will  break  and  eyes 
unused  to  weeping  shall  be  filled  with  tears. 
It  is  not  an  acquisition  or  an  attainment ;  it 
will  not  come  by  practice,  or  education,  or 
any  number  of  elocution  lessons  ;  it  is  a  secret 
from  all  who  desire  it  for  any  selfish  or  vain- 
glorious end.  But  if  you  will  wait  before 
God  in  silence  and  patience,  your  eyes  being 
ever  toward  the  Lord,  He  will  give  you  your 
heart's  desire. 

You  cannot  attain  some  grace  of  Christian 
character  which  you  long  to  possess,  but  you 
can  obtaifi  it.  It  is  there,  in  the  character  of 
Jesus,  waiting  for  you,  and  all  that  is  requisite 
on  your  part  is  to  adopt  an  attitude  of  utter 
and  constant  dependence.  God  htis  blessed 
us  with  all  spiritual  blessings  in  Jesus,  and 
He  hath  given  us  all  things  that  pertain  to 
life  and  godliness  through  the  blessed  know- 
ledge of  the  Son  of  His  love. 

How  could  I  answer  such  a  letter  as  the 
following  unless  I  knew  this  blessed  secret? 
"  Five  years  ago,"  the  writer  says,  "  I  got 
into  a  very  bad  habit,  which  I  did  not  take 
much  notice  of  then,  but  which  has  clung  to 


\ 


42  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

me  ever  since.  I  find  that  it  has  a  very 
much  stronger  hold  than  formerly,  and  all 
my  efforts  to  throw  it  off  seem  to  be  useless. 
I  have  made  special  prayers  to  God  for  the 
past  two  years,  asking  Him  to  give  me 
strength  to  overcome  the  temptation. "  I  get 
very  disheartened,  for  it  seems  that  my 
prayers  are  not  heard,  and  I  seem  to  be 
getting  worse  rather  than  better.  Now  will 
you  please  tell  me  what  I  can  do?  " 

Now  there  is  only  one  thing  to  say :  "  Do 
not  strive  to  attain  the  victory  by  your  own 
efforts,  but  look  to  Jesus  to  give  the  victory." 
"  Now  thanks  be  to  God,  who  giveth  us  the 
victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 
"  They  that  receive  the  abundance  of  grace 
shall  reign." 

To  live  like  this  is  very  blessed.  The  heart 
is  stilled  in  its  great  expectancy.  It  reahzes 
that  all  it  needs  is  in  God,  and  it  endeavors 
to  hve  with  nothing  between  itself  and  the 
Source  of  all  its  bliss  and  grace.  Then  as 
each  emergency,  trial,  or  difficulty  arises  it 
simply  goes  to  the  everlasting  supply  which 
God  has  caused  to  reside  in  Jesus,  and  ob- 
tains all,  and  more  than  all,  its  desire. 


VII 
AT   THE    GATE    OF   THE   WILL 

"  Oh,  keep  my  soul,  and  deliver  me! "— Ps.  xxv.  20. 

There  was  a  castle  once,  the  key  to  a  sys- 
tem of  national  defense.  It  was  often  be- 
leaguered by  its  foes,  who  invested  it  on  all 
sides,  allowing  no  chance  of  attack  to  pass 
without  pressing  for  an  advantage  over  the 
defenders.  It  had  not,  however,  so  much  to 
fear  around  its  walls,  since  it  was  strongly 
fortified — nature  and  art  having  combined  to 
render  it  a  stronghold ;  but  its  weakness  lay 
in  the  great  entrance-gate,  through  which  was 
ingress  and  egress  between  the  castle  and  the 
surrounding  country.  Through  this  gate  the 
enemy  had  often  poured,  carrying  it  by  storm, 
to  be  driven  out  with  great  difficulty  after 
wreaking  their  vindictive  malice  on  the  fabric. 
When  times  were  troublous  and  an  attack 
was  expected,  elaborate  care  was  taken  to 
strengthen  this  gateway  and,  above  all,  to 
strictly  scrutinize  all  who  passed  in  and  out. 
But  often  it  happened  that  the  traitors  flocked 
43 


44  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

into  the  old  keep  amid  the  crowds  that  passed 
to  and  fro,  hiding  themselves  in  the  precincts 
until  a  signal  was  given  from  without,  when 
they  betrayed  the  castle  to  its  foes.  Stricter 
and  ever  stricter  watch  was  instituted  by  the 
garrison,  but  the  traitors  were  so  wily  that, 
like  the  Gibeonites  of  old,  they  disguised 
themselves.  They  assumed  the  garb  of  loyal 
subjects,  and  seemed  engaged  in  innocent 
and  natural  pursuits,  and  so  eluded  scrutiny. 
It  was  only  after  repeated  failure  that  finally 
the  garrison  intrusted  the  keeping  of  that 
gate  to  one  of  the  most  experienced  officers 
of  the  royal  court,  who  was  well  accustomed 
to  detect  the  presence  of  the  enemy  under 
every  disguise.  He  from  that  day  forward 
kept  the  closest  watch,  and  often  arrested  an 
apparently  harmless  individual  who,  on  being 
searched,  turned  out  to  be  a  spy  or  an  in- 
cendiary. Under  his  watchful  care  the 
castle  was  kept  from  fear  of  surprise  and  he 
was  able  also  to  repel  many  an  assault. 

This  is  a  thinly  veiled  parable  of  the  heart, 
young  reader.  It  is  a  stronghold  which  God 
has  intrusted  to  our  care;  but  Satan  be- 
leaguers it  and  is  ever  seeking  to  win  it  for 
himself.  The  one  point,  however,  which  is 
most  vulnerable  is  the  great  gate  of  the  will. 
If  only  that  were  always  kept  closely  shut 
against  the  foe,  whether  in  disguised  or  open 
attack,  we  might  safely  defy  all  the  power  of 


AT  THE   GATE   OF  THE    WILL      45 

the  enemy,  so  strict  is  the  partition  between 
our  human  nature  and  diabolic  hate.  But 
it  is  just  there  that  we  are  weakest.  The 
keeper  of  that  gate  has  often  been  bribed  by 
the  imagination,  after  it  has  been  over-per- 
suaded and  induced,  in  spite  of  the  remon- 
strances of  the  judgment,  to  admit  certain 
thoughts  which  sought  for  admission,  but 
which  have  perpetrated  nameless  outrages. 
We  have  weakly  yielded  in  the  suggestion. 
The  gates  have  been  thrown  open,  to  our 
awful  hurt. 

If  we  could  only  stop  bad  thoughts  from 
entering  the  precincts  of  the  soul,  how  safe 
and  happy  we  should  be!  We  could  easily 
enough  ward  off  assaults  from  without  if  we 
were  not  betrayed  from  within.  But  we 
should  not  be  betrayed  there  if  only  we  were 
more  careful  and  resolute  in  examining, 
searching,  and  turning  back  the  subtle  and 
evil  suggestions  which  knock  for  admittance. 

Think  of  the  zealous  care  with  which  the 
Czar  of  all  the  Russias  is  surrounded.  No 
stranger  could  enter  his  palace.  The  highest- 
born  have  to  pass  through  a  strict  cordon  of 
scrutiny  ere  they  are  admitted  to  the  imperial 
presence.  And  this  is  necessary  if  he  is  to 
be  preserved  from  the  plots  of  the  nihilists, 
from  dynamite  or  cold  steel.  If  his  palace 
were  left  as  unwatched  as  we  leave  our 
hearts, — if  it  were  as  easy  for  traitors  to  enter 


46  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

as  it  is  for  thoughts  or  evil  imaginations  to 
intrude  within  our  souls,— his  Hfe  would  be 
instantly  forfeited.  But  if  we  exercised  the 
same  unsleepin  g  vigilance  over  every  thought, 
suggestion,  fancy,  or  ambition,  the  soul  might 
be  left  as  pure  and  safe  as  the  Kremlin  dur- 
ing the  late  celebrations. 

Do  you  not  know  this?  All  temptation 
begins  with  the  first  flitting  thought,  which 
shows  itself  like  the  air  of  a  fugue — merely 
a  suggestion,  a  fancy,  a  desire.  It  seems  in- 
nocent enough.  You  are  disposed  to  admit 
it.  Why  shouldn't  you?  It  is  surely  need- 
less to  make  too  much  ado  about  what  seems 
so  innocent,  or  at  least  so  trifling.  And  that 
thought  may  lie  in  your  heart,  like  a  spore  of 
contagion  in  the  system,  for  days  or  even 
months  without  revealing  its  malign  intention. 
Then,  some  day  when  you  least  expect  it,  it 
will  suddenly  leap  out,  full-armed,  upon  you, 
hke  the  warriors  from  the  wooden  horse  which 
the  Trojans,  in  an  evil  hour,  drew  within 
their  gates.  Every  temptation  begins  in  the 
first  faint  suggestion.  Deal  with  that  and  no 
power  of  the  adversary  can  prevail  against 
you.  Yield  to  that  and  sooner  or  later  you 
will  rue  your  weakness  and  find  that  the  in- 
nocent-looking egg  contained  a  viper,  and 
that  the  tiny,  trickling  streamlet  has  become 
a  raging  torrent  which  carries  all  before  it  in 
its  ungovernable  passion. 


AT  THE   GATE   OF   THE    WILL      47 

If  only  each  young  soul  that  reads  this 
page  would  realize  this !  Keep  your  thoughts 
and  you  keep  your  hearts.  Indulge  suspi- 
cious or  evil  thoughts  and  you  cannot  hope 
to  prevail  in  the  conflict  against  sin. 

But  of  course  the  difficulty  arises  at  the 
gate  of  the  soul.  We  are  so  weak.  Frequent 
yielding  in  the  past  has  robbed  us  of  much 
of  the  power  of  resistance.  We  are  so  easily 
deceived;  we  do  not  detect  the  traitor;  we 
admit  the  crowd  of  visitants  so  easily.  The 
stream  is  always  pouring  in  and  out,  and  we 
cannot  or  will  not  use  all  our  powers  in  dis- 
criminating and  winnowing  the  bad  from  the 
good. 

For  this  reason  there  is  nothing  for  it  but 
to  intrust  the  keeping  of  our  souls  to  our 
Saviour,  who  will  gladly  undertake  the  charge. 
Ask  Him  to  place  a  strong  warder  at  the  gate 
of  the  will, — one  beyond  suspicion  and  inca- 
pable of  being  bribed, — who  shall  detect  in  a 
moment  and  beneath  every  disguise  the  un- 
hallowed and  treacherous  impulse,  and  shall 
have  strength  enough  to  repel.  There  is  no 
doubt  who  that  warder  will  be.  The  Holy 
Spirit  alone  is  equal  to  so  difficult  and  im- 
portant a  work.  But  when  the  soul  is  in- 
trusted to  Him  there  is  no  fear  of  failure. 
Live  in  the  Spirit,  walk  in  the  Spirit,  and  you 
shall  not  fulfil  the  lusts  of  the  flesh. 

Would  that  I  had  words  to  bum  this 


48  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

thought  into  every  heart!  Thoughts  are 
always  trooping  up  to  the  gate  of  the  soul — 
happy  and  sad,  of  home  and  love  and  busi- 
ness, which  recall  the  past  and  anticipate  the 
future,  some  dressed  in  fustian,  others  in  gold 
and  silver  tissue.  Now  in  that  crowd,  un- 
der  a  harmless  exterior,  evil  and  traitorous 
thoughts  often  mingle  and  pass  in  without 
much  notice  or  resistance  on  our  part.  If 
only  we  would  yield  ourselves  to  the  Holy 
Spirit !  He  would  not  prohibit  anything  that 
was  natural  and  innocent,  but  would  detect, 
expose,  and  put  back  all  that  was  not  pure, 
holy,  lovely,  and  of  good  report.  Then 
peace  and  blessedness  and  salvation  would 
reign  through  the  whole  fortress  of  man-soul. 


VIII 

THE   CONTROL   OF   OUR 
THOUGHTS 

"  Bringing  into  captivity  every  thought  to  the 
obedience  of  Christ."— 2  Cor.  x.  5. 

Until  you  have  learned  to  control  your 
thoughts  you  will  never  be  able  to  live  a  godly 
and  righteous  life.  As  a  man  thinketh  in  his 
heart  so  is  he,  and  it  is  because  the  thoughts 
that  we  entertain  in  the  hostelry  of  the  soul 
are  such  worthless  and  vain  ones  that  our 
words  and  acts  often  bring  so  heavy  a  dis- 
grace on  the  Name  we  love.  Well  might  the 
wise  man  say,  "  Keep  thy  heart  with  all  dili- 
gence ;  for  out  of  it  are  the  issues  of  life  " 
(Prov.  iv.  23).  When  the  heart  is  right  the 
ear  (20)  and  the  eye  (21)  and  the  mouth  (24) 
and  the  foot  (27)  will  necessarily  obey  its 
promptings;  but  when  the  heart  is  wrong, 
filled  with  tides  of  ink,  hke  the  cuttlefish,  it 
will  envelop  itself  in  the  impurity  to  which  it 
gives  vent. 

There  are  many  who  pride  themselves  on 
49 


50  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

their  outward  behavior — on  not  having  in- 
vaded the  rights  of  God  or  man ;  they  even 
bear  a  Christian  name  and  are  engaged  in 
Christian  work,  but  their  minds  are  full  of 
lewd  and  vile  thoughts  which  desecrate  the 
sacred  precincts  of  the  soul,  that  was  meant 
to  be  alone  the  temple  of  God.  Thus  the 
beasts  driven  into  the  temple  courts  filled 
them  with  their  stench  and  demanded  the 
interposition  of  Christ.  Does  your  heart  con- 
form to  the  Master's  description  of  the  house 
in  which  there  is  no  part  dark,  or  is  it  like 
some  gloomy  cave  in  which  slimy  things  crawl 
at  their  will?  If  the  latter,— if  you  habitually 
permit  evil  things  to  have  right  of  way  through 
you  or  lodging  within  you, — remember  that 
in  God's  sight  you  are  held  equally  guilty  as 
those  who  indulge  in  evil  acts,  because  you 
are  withheld,  not  by  your  fear  of  Him,  but 
by  your  desire  to  maintain  your  position 
among  men.  That  you  know  the  better  and 
yet  secretly  allow  the  worse  only  aggravates 
your  sin  in  His  sight,  to  which  all  things  are 
naked  and  open.  Remember  also  that  the 
secret  working  of  evil  thoughts  will  inevitably 
show  itself  sooner  or  later,  just  as  the  insidious 
work  of  the  white  ant  in  the  wood  will  pre- 
pare for  the  sudden  collapse  of  the  house. 

Do  not  say  that  you  cannot  control  your 
thoughts.  It  is  perfectly  certain  that  you 
can.     It  would  be  true  for  you  to  say  that 


THE  CONTROL  OF  OUR  THOUGHTS  51 

you  had  not  controlled  them.  Your  mind 
has  sadly  resembled  a  public  house,  whose 
swing-doors  on  the  level  of  the  pavement 
make  it  so  easy  of  access  for  every  passer-by. 
You  have  allowed  any  thought  that  chose  to 
enter  and  tell  its  tale,  like  the  pilgrims  in 
Chaucer's  masterpiece.  Now  it  is  perfectly 
certain  that  we  all  have  the  God-given  power 
of  excluding  bad  and  vain  thoughts,  or  of 
turning  toward  whatsoever  things  are  true, 
honorable,  just,  pure,  lovely,  gracious.  "  If 
there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  there  be  any  praise, 
think  on  these  things T 

Suppose  there  is  some  one  evil  thought 
which  is  always  haunting  you,  coming  back 
perpetually,  spreading  itself  between  you  and 
everything  as  a  blue  mist,  poisoning  the 
springs  of  love,  life,  and  simple,  natural  en- 
joyment. You  should  label  it,  stamp  it  with 
the  brand  of  your  moral  censure  and  disap- 
probation. Say,  "This  is  an  evil,  hell-bom 
thought."  Place  it  beneath  the  ban  of  your 
steadfast  excommunication.  What  will  be 
the  result?  Every  time  it  occurs  you  will 
remember  what  you  have  thought  and  said  of 
it.  Like  Cain,  it  will  bear  the  mark  of  the 
curse  wherever  it  comes.  As  soon  as  it 
shadows  your  path  or  puts  its  head  in  through 
the  swinging  doors,  you  will  accost  it  as  a 
criminal  and  bid  it  begone.  There  are  men 
who  have  done  this  with  their  dreams.     Be- 


52  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

fore  sleeping  they  have  said  to  themselves, 
"  If  such  or  such  visions  dare  to  force  their 
way  through  the  curtains  of  the  night,  they 
are  burglars  come  to  steal  peace,  purity,  and 
heaven."  Such  a  thought  has  aroused  them 
from  their  slumbers ;  with  a  start  they  have 
awoke  to  detect  the  stealthy  tread  of  the  in- 
truder, and  to  bid  him  begone  in  the  name 
of  God. 

All  this  gains  additional  emphasis  in  the 
light  of  Christ.  He  counts  evil  thoughts  as 
traitors  not  only  to  us,  but  to  Himself.  Like 
the  psalmist,  we  may  say,  "  I  hate  vain 
thoughts,"  not  only  because  of  the  curse 
they  bring  to  my  heart,  but  for  the  grief 
they  give  to  my  King.  Their  intrusion  is 
forbidden  by  the  double  barrier  of  our  own 
choice  and,  more  than  all,  of  the  keeping 
power  of  Jesus  Let  the  peace  of  God  keep 
the  door  of  heart  and  mind,  scrutinizing  each 
intruder  and  turning  back  the  unfit.  Let  the 
Holy  Spirit  bring  every  thought  into  captivity 
to  the  obedience  of  Christ.  Let  the  faithful 
Saviour  have  the  keeping  of  the  soul  intrusted 
to  Him,  that  He  may  watch  every  menacing 
thought  which  lurks  in  the  shadow  or  steals 
up  the  glen.  He  is  well  able  to  keep  what 
is  committed  to  Him.  He  will  not  fail  the 
suppliant  whose  lips  are  familiar  with  one  of 
the  greatest  of  uninspired  prayers  :  "  Cleanse 
the  thoughts  of  our  hearts  by  the  inspiration 


THE  CONTROL  OF  OUR  THOUGHTS   53 

of  Thy  Holy  Spirit,  that  we  may  perfectly 
love  Thee  and  worthily  magnify  Thy  holy 
name."  If  only  you  would  ask  Christ  to 
undertake  the  straining  out  of  unworthy, 
vain,  proud,  jealous,  and  evil  thoughts,  you 
would  find  that  He  would  be  as  vigilant  as 
the  warder  who  from  his  watch-tower  detects 
the  spy  or  traitor. 

Then,  as  to  the  control  of  good  thoughts, 
each  of  us  has  the  power  of  arresting  a  cur- 
rent of  thinking  and  of  turning  the  attention 
to  some  new  subject  or  topic  of  interest.  It 
has  been  recommended  that  we  should  carry 
about  a  httle  card  with  four  or  five  words 
written  clearly  upon  it,  each  being  associated 
with  some  tender  or  startling  memory, — such 
as  mother,  the  name  of  some  pure,  sweet 
child,  the  place  of  a  great  deliverance,  the 
date  of  some  miraculous  interposition, — so 
that  a  new  train  of  thought  might  be  sug- 
gested and  the  mind  be  filled  with  hght  and 
love.  Some  of  those  who  have  adopted  this 
plan  have  spoken  warmly  of  its  advantages. 
They  have  related  how,  in  moments  when  the 
rabble  rout  of  evil  imaginations  was  bursting 
into  the  soul,  deliverance  was  wrought  through 
the  angel  form  of  some  holy  memory. 

Let  this  be  as  it  may,  there  is  surely  a  more 
excellent  way.  If  any  name  is  an  amulet 
against  evil  or  an  incentive  to  holy  thinking, 
the  name  of  Jesus  will  best  meet  the  require- 


54  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

ments  of  the  soul's  urgency.  There  is  no 
v^  name  hke  His.  Blessed  Spirit,  remind  us  of 
it,  and  when  passion  begins  to  rise  and  howl 
without  like  the  winter's  wind,  stand  within 
our  heart  and  speak  the  Name  which  is  above 
•  every  name,  till  the  storm  subsides  and  there 
is  a  great  calm. 

There  is  something  better  still.  Let  us 
abide  in  Christ,  so  that  He  shall  become  the 
very  element  of  our  existence,  permeating  and 
penetrating  our  inner  nature.  Where  His  life 
is  strong  within  us  it  will  be  as  sensitive  of 
the  least  approach  of  evil  as  the  mirror  in  the 
ancient  fable  detected  the  slightest  taint  of 
imposture  and  falsehood.  When  His  life  is 
strong  within  us  it  will  repel  everything  that 
is  ahen  to  itself  with  a  repugnance  and  swift- 
ness that  shall  admit  of  no  remonstrance. 
When  His  life  is  strong  within  us  it  will  con- 
trol all  imaginings  and  thinkings,  subjecting 
them  to  His  sway,  transfiguring  them  with 
His  hght,  yoking  them  to  the  chariot  of  His 
victorious  progress. 


IX 

NOT  JOY,   BUT   CHRIST 

"  Follow  on  to  know  the  Lord."  — Hos.  vi.  3. 

I  AM  constantly  meeting  people  who  com- 
plain that  the  joy  experienced  by  them  in 
their  consecration  to  God  has  faded  away 
after  the  first  few  days,  like  Hght  fades  off  a 
landscape ;  and  they  complain  bitterly,  as  if 
they  had  receded  from  the  position  which 
they  had  taken  up,  and  in  seeking  their  lost 
joy  they  become  involved  in  deeper  darkness. 
We  may  become  as  much  self-centered  in  our 
search  for  joy  as  we  are  in  our  search  for 
salvation. 

Of  course  there  may  be  reasons  for  this 
loss  of  rapture,  and  these  should  be  dealt 
with.  One  of  these  may  be  the  trust  in  the 
impetus  received  at  the  moment,  instead  of 
the  constant  clinging  to  Christ — as  if  a  num- 
ber of  railway  carriages  could  suppose  that  a 
rapid  run  of  several  miles  would  suffice  to 
carry  them  for  coming  hours  in  complete  in- 
dependence of  the  engine.  Or,  again,  we 
55 


56  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

may  suppose  that  we  can  do  with  less  fellow- 
ship with  Christ  through  His  Word,  whereas, 
in  point  of  fact,  the  consecrated  soul  needs 
more  ;  and,  indeed,  that  consecration  is  spuri- 
ous which  does  not  lead  to  more.  Or,  again, 
there  may  be  some  laxity  in  applying  to  new 
events  the  principles  assumed  at  the  solemn 
moment  of  self-dedication. 

But,  supposing  none  of  these  causes  apply, 
there  is  no  reason  for  anxiety  at  the  loss  of 
emotion.  Feehng  comes  and  goes,  but  the 
facts  of  spiritual  experience  are  permanent. 
The  nature  of  man  cannot  be  always  yielding 
crops  of  ecstatic  pleasure.  Like  the  fields 
of  nature,  the  heart  of  man  must  he  fallow. 
Tides  must  ebb  after  their  flow.  But  all  this 
does  not  affect  by  a  single  iota  the  position 
of  the  will  to  be  only  for  Jesus.  And  it  is 
a  blessed  thing  to  look  up  into  His  face  and 
say,  "  I  do  not  feel  as  I  did,  but  1  am  pre- 
cisely as  I  was  when  I  felt  most." 

This  search  for  highly  kindled  feeHng  is  a 
mistake,  and  it  is  the  source  of  perplexity  and 
trouble  to  numberless  souls.  We  have  to 
seek,  not  feeHng,  but  to  know  Christ,  to  do 
Christ's  will,  to  keep  His  commandments,  to 
be  conformed  to  His  image.  If  feeling 
comes  as  the  result  of  any  of  these  things, 
welcome  it  as  God's  most  precious  kiss 
of  approval ;  but  if  it  do  not  come,  dare  to 
believe  that  God  is  equally  pleased,  even 


NOT  JOY,   BUT  CHRIST  57 

though  He  withhold  the  sense  of  His  warm' 
embrace. 

Let  us  "follow  on  to  know  the  Lord." 
Let  us  count  all  things  but  loss  for  the  ex- 
cellency of  His  knowledge.  Let  us  make 
every  endeavor  to  grow  in  grace  and  in  the 
knowledge  of  our  God  and  Saviour.  In  do- 
ing this  we  must  be  content  to  pass  through 
times  of  comparative  darkness.  You  cannot 
know  the  sadder  aspects  of  Christ's  character 
unless  you  are  prepared  to  go  with  Him 
into  the  shadow.  His  path  lies  now,  as  for- 
merly, through  Gethsemane  with  its  somber 
shadows,  beneath  the  weight  of  the  cross,  and 
down  into  the  grave.  To  know  Him  under 
these  circumstances  demands  a  curtaining  of 
the  soul  from  the  full  blaze  of  the  sun  of  un- 
broken rapture.  Christ  is  the  Man  of  Sor- 
rows, and  the  Lamb  slain,  and  the  High 
Priest  touched  with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmi- 
ties ;  and  there  must  be  a  stepping  down  with 
Him  into  the  shadowed  valley  if  we  are  to 
know  some  of  the  innermost  aspects  of  His 
nature.  Paul  spoke  about  "the  fellowship 
of  His  sufferings  "  and  "  conformity  to  His 
death." 

Flowers  will  not  reach  their  perfection  if 
they  are  kept  always  in  a  place  of  light, 
natural  and  artificial,  and  there  are  lessons  to 
be  learned  and  virtues  to  be  acquired  which 
are  incompatible  with  a  highly  exalted  state 


58  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

of  emotional  rapture.  Light  is  sown  for  the 
righteous,  and  sowing  time  is  the  stripping 
time  of  the  dank  autumn  days,  with  the  fallen 
leaves  bestrewing  the  forest  glade.  There 
are  plenty  that  like  the  glad  harvest  of  light, 
but  are  unwilHng  to  pay  the  price. 

His  coming  forth  is  prepared,  not  only  as 
the  morning,  but  as  the  rain ;  and  the  rain 
means  clouds,  and  the  clouds  mean  brooding 
shadows.  But  Jesus  is  in  the  rain  and  the 
shadow  as  much  as  in  the  hght  that  breaks 
from  the  east  at  dawn.  Ah,  soul!  thou 
wouldest  always  have  Him  come  with  the 
radiant  glow  of  His  transfiguration  fresh  upon 
Him ;  but  a  greater  miracle  was  wrought 
when  He  crossed  the  sea  in  the  storm,  and 
they  knew  not  that  it  was  He,  because  the 
mists  had  veiled  His  figure. 

It  is  consistent  with  Scripture  and  experi- 
ence to  beheve  that  the  soul  may  be  at  per- 
fect rest  and  peace,  unruffled  and  permanent 
through  every  phase  of  feehng.  This  is 
blessedness.  This  is  the  heritage  of  every 
true  servant  of  Christ,  like  the  rock  which  re- 
mains steadfast  amid  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the 
tide.  Young  believers,  cling  to  this  as  your 
inahenable  portion. 

But  while  this  peace  is  possible,  a  highly 
wrought  emotional  rapture  is  neither  healthy 
nor  needful.  Still,  whether  it  is  present  or 
not,  the  one  thing  is  to  abide  in  the  will  of 


NOT  JOY,  BUT  CHRIST  59 

God  and  to  find  our  peace  in  fulfilling  the 
somber  bits  of  the  plan  as  well  as  the  brighter, 
gayer  ones,  leaving  it  for  Him  to  put  gladness 
into  our  hearts  if  we  can  learn  more  of  Him 
so,  or  sadness  if  thus  we  can  make  more  rapid 
progress  toward  His  ideal. 

"For  he,  and  he  only,  with  wisdom  is  blest, 

Who,  gathering  true  pleasures  wherever  they  grow, 
Looks  up  in  all  places  for  joy  or  for  rest, 
To  the  Fountain  whence  Time  and  Eternity  flow." 


THE   HOUR   OF   TEMPTATION 

**  God  will  not  suffer  you  to  be  tempted  above  that 
ye  are  able."— i  Cor.  x.  13. 

Temptation  is  the  trying  or  testing  of 
the  soul.  Satan  tempts  with  evil  to  make  us 
fall;  God  tries  us  by  putting  into  our  lives 
occasions  for  laying  aside  evil  and  engaging 
in  heroic  acts  for  Him.  We  have  thus  the 
frequent  opportunity  of  learning  what  is  really 
in  our  hearts  and  of  stepping  up  into  a  sweeter, 
purer,  stronger  life. 

Every  pure  soul  is  an  offense  to  every  evil 
one,  and  therefore  those  who  are  themselves 
evil  are  always  endeavoring  to  drag  down  the 
good  to  their  own  infamous  level.  Perhaps 
there  is  a  deeper  reason  why  the  Christian 
soldier  is  beset  by  the  principahties  and 
powers  of  darkness.  The  devil  and  all  his 
demon  emissaries  hate  Jesus  Christ  with  a 
mahgnity  and  fury  that  flame  the  more  in- 
tensely as  they  know  their  efforts  against  Him 
are  futile.  They  cannot  reach  Him;  the 
60 


THE  HOUR   OF   TEMPTATION       61 

Father  has  put  them  under  His  feet  in  the 
mighty  victory  of  the  cross  and  the  ascension  ; 
He  sits  at  the  right  hand  of  power,  all  rule 
and  principality  and  power  being  beneath 
Him  forever ;  so  they  seek  to  strike  at  Him 
by  striking  at  those  who  beheve  in  Him. 
Therefore  the  glory  of  Jesus  Christ  is  in- 
volved in  every  temptation  by  which  we  are 
threatened,  and  for  His  sake,  if  not  for  our 
own,  we  must  stand  firm. 

Do  not  think  that  temptatiojis  prove  that  you 
are  deterio7'ati?ig  in  the  divine  life.  On  the 
contrary,  the  fierce  temptation  of  the  wilder- 
ness succeeds  immediately  on  the  opened 
heaven  and  the  voice  of  God.  Have  you 
been  declared  to  be  the  beloved  son  of  God? 
Then  the  Spirit  will  drive  you  into  the  wilder- 
ness to  be  tempted  of  the  devil,  as  though  by 
suffering  the  blessed  revelation  shall  be 
wrought  more  deeply  into  the  fabric  of  the 
soul.  The  more  ripe  fruit  there  is  in  the 
orchard  of  your  heart  the  more  violent  will 
be  the  attempt  to  steal  it.  The  closer  you 
are  identified  with  your  Captain  in  the  thick- 
est of  the  fight  the  more  will  be  your  ex- 
posure to  the  heaviest  fire  of  the  foe. 

God  permits  us  to  be  tetftpted.  The  Evil 
One  is  always  considering  the  saints,  as  he 
did  Job  ;  but  he  cannot  approach  them  unless 
God  permit,  and  that  permission  is  not  given 
unless  our  Father  knows  that  we  have  grace 


62  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

enough  to  withstand.  The  pressure  of  temp- 
tation is  always  carefully  adjusted  to  our 
power  of  resistance.  He  is  faithful  and  will 
not  suffer  us  to  be  tempted  beyond  what  we 
are  able  to  bear,  but  with  the  temptation  will 
send  us  His  all-sufficient  grace  or  show  the 
way  of  escape  (2  Cor.  xii.  9).  Oiu:  Lord 
taught  us  to  ask  that  we  should  not  be  led 
into  temptation;  therefore  we  know  that  if 
we  are  led  in  we  shall  be  sustained  in  the 
fight  and  led  out  without  a  scratch. 

God  is  our  Father  and  loves  us  infinitely  ; 
there  must  therefore  be  the  best  of  reasons 
why  we  are  so  frequently  exposed  to  the 
fierce  ordeal  of  temptation.  Is  it  to  bum  in 
the  colors  His  Spirit  lays  on  us,  as  men  do 
with  porcelain  ?  Is  it  to  teach  us  the  art  of 
spiritual  warfare,  to  make  our  sinews  lissome, 
our  eye  quick,  our  frame  agile,  as  lads  are 
trained  in  the  gymnasium  or  fencing-school? 
Is  it  to  force  us  by  our  very  necessities  to 
avail  ourselves  of  His  succoring  might? 
This  at  least  is  clear:  there  is  no  necessity 
for  us  to  fall  or  sin  before  temptation.  Our 
Lord  was  tempted  in  all  points  like  as  we  are, 
yet  without  sin.  It  were  possible  for  a  soul 
to  go  through  hell  itself  so  full  of  the  love  of 
God,  so  environed  by  His  protection,  that  it 
would  come  out  on  the  other  side  without 
even  a  hair  singed  or  the  smell  of  fire  upon  it. 

The  devil  likes  to  find  us  alone.     Seclusion 


THE  HOUR   OF  TEMPTATION       63 

in  the  caves  of  the  Thebaid  did  not  reheve 
the  old  hermits  from  the  assaults  of  evil,  but 
rather  intensified  them.  When  Eve  was  apart 
from  Adam  the  serpent  spoke  to  her ;  Jesus 
was  alone  when  the  devil  came  to  Him. 
Beware,  then,  of  hours  of  solitude,  but  know 
that  your  Father  is  in  secret.  Cry  to  Him 
and  He  will  be  your  very  present  help. 

The  power  of  the  tempter  lies  in  surprise. 
No  bell  rings  in  heaven  to  tell  us  that  the 
dark  squadrons  are  steahng  around  our  castle. 
No  storm-signal  hangs  out  to  warn  against  the 
approaching  depression.  Only  the  watcher 
angel  that  loves  us,  and  certainly  the  good 
Shepherd  who  pleads  for  us  now  as  for  Peter 
on  Olivet,  detect  the  stealthy  approach  of  the 
enemy  of  our  souls.  Let  us  watch,  there- 
fore, and  pray,  lest  we  enter  into  temptation. 
I  have  invariably  found  that  when  I  have 
congratulated  myself  on  being  secure  from 
any  special  form  of  temptation  I  have  been 
exposed  to  its  full  fury  within  twenty-four 
hours. 

If  you  carefully  watch  yourselves  you  will 
find  ihsit  failure  i7i  temptatio?i  is  always  pre- 
ceded by  some  pentiitted  evil  which  took  place 
perhaps  days  before.  The  final  assault  is 
sudden,  but  the  sappers  and  miners  had  been 
at  work  long  before.  The  tree  fell  unexpect- 
edly in  the  hurricane  which  swept  over  the 
forest  in  the  night,  but  the  borer-worm  had 


64  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

been  at  its  heart  for  weeks  before  the  final 
crash.  Peter's  fall  was  prepared  by  the  dis- 
pute in  the  upper  chamber  as  to  the  greatest. 
Be  very  careful  against  the  shght  spores  of 
disease  that  float  in  the  air  and  insinuate 
themselves  into  the  system ;  so  only  will  you 
escape  in  the  epidemic.  The  first  flitting 
suggestion,  the  thought  which  is  inserted  into 
the  heart, — as  thieves  put  a  trained  child  in  at 
a  window  that  it  may  go  round  to  open  the 
door  to  the  gang, — the  permitted  look  of 
desire— these  are  to  be  feared,  because  they 
breed  in  the  nest  of  the  heart.  Listen  to  the 
genealogy  of  evil :  "  Lust,  when  it  hath  con- 
ceived, beareth  sin :  and  sin,  when  it  is  full- 
grown,  bringeth  forth  death"  (James  i.  15). 
Yielding  is  the  result  of  previous  decline. 
The  sin  that  breaks  into  manifestation,  bad 
and  black  as  it  is,  and  needing  confession  and 
restoration,  has  far-reaching  roots ;  and  to  be 
dealt  with  properly  we  must  not  only  confess 
the  one  act,  but  go  back  to  the  first  evfl  sug- 
gestion which  we  permitted  to  lie  within  us 
uncondemned.  Bankruptcy  is  the  chmax  of 
months  of  bad  trading.  Rapid  consumption 
brings  to  hght  the  disease  which  had  long 
been  undermining  the  system.  Keep  in  per- 
fect soul-health,  robust  and  hearty,  well 
nourished  by  the  food  of  the  Word,  and  in- 
spiring deed  breaths  of  the  heavenly  air,  and 
you  need  fear  no  sudden  shock  of  disease. 


THE  HOUR   OF   TEMPTATION       65 

The  tempted  may  dwell  betweeii  double 
doors.  First,  he  is  in  Christ ;  second,  Christ 
is  in  him.  If  you  are  in  Christ  you  are  above 
the  devil,  for  the  devil  is  put  under  His  feet. 
If,  then,  you  are  only  at  His  feet  you  are 
above  your  great  adversary.  Abide  in  Christ. 
As  long  as  you  do  you  cannot  sin  consciously 
and  wilfully.  The  whole  energy  of  hell  is  to 
seduce  men  from  abiding  in  Christ.  If  by 
permitted  sin,  by  neglected  Bible-reading,  by 
rushing  out  after  the  sweetness  of  earth,  by 
worrying  as  to  the  future,  we  leave  our  shel- 
ter in  the  clefts  of  the  rock,  we  become  an 
easy  prey  to  Satan.  But  as  long  as  we  live 
in  fellowship  with  Him,  casting  on  Him  our 
care,  studying  and  feeding  on  His  Word, 
living  up  to  all  known  duty,  and  cultivating 
the  spirit  of  charity  to  all,  we  remain  inside 
our  citadel  and  are  safe. 

Also,  Christ  is  in  ns  as  a  treasury  of  un- 
known grace  and  blessing,  our  light  and  sal- 
vation, our  life  and  strength.  If  we  cannot 
hold  the  door  against  the  devil,  the  Stronger 
than  he  can  do  it  for  us,  and  will  do  at  the 
feeblest  call  of  our  faith.  Let  us  put  Christ 
between  us  and  temptation.  Let  us  not  be 
content  with  resistance,  but  take  more  of 
Christ's  grace  as  the  antidote;  Christ's  pur- 
ity amid  suggestions  of  impurity;  Christ's 
strength  in  hours  of  f  earf  ulness  and  trembling ; 
Christ's  meekness  when  tempted  to  pride  or 


66  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

vainglory;  Christ's  gentleness  when  about 
to  judge  or  act  harshly ;  Christ's  prayerful- 
ness  when  thoughts  wander  and  the  soul 
cleaves  with  folded  wing  to  the  earth. 

So  shall  be  realized  the  ancient  predictions 
of  Psalm  xci.  Dwelhng  in  the  secret  place 
of  the  Most  High,  and  abiding  under  the 
shadow  of  the  Almighty,  there  will  be  no 
reason  why  we  should  fear  the  terror  by 
night  or  the  arrow  by  day,  the  lion  or  adder, 
the  young  lion  or  the  serpent.  Only  set  your 
love  on  God  and  you  shall  be  delivered. 


XI 

THE    CONQUEROR    FROM    EDOM 

"  Mighty  to  save."— ISA.  LXiii.  1-3. 

Israel  and  Edom  were  hereditary  foes. 
This  was  the  more  remarkable  because  their 
ancestors  were  brothers.  But  from  the  earli- 
est there  was  strife  between  these  two,  and 
the  antagonism  of  the  cradle  was  perpetuated 
throughout  the  history  of  the  great  nations 
which  owed  their  existence  to  Jacob  and 
Esau  respectively. 

When  Israel  pleaded  for  permission  to  pass 
through  the  land  of  Edom  and  so  curtail  the 
weary  desert  march,  Edom  refused  and  came 
out  against  him  with  much  peopk  and  with 
a  strong  hand — an  affront  which  was  never 
forgotten.  It  was  a  grim  satisfaction,  there- 
fore, to  Israel  when  the  whole  band  of  Edom 
was  temporarily  subdued  under  David.  But 
the  subjection  could  not  be  maintained,  and 
through  the  troubled  reigns  of  the  kings  we 
find  the  Edomites  always  giving  trouble,  sid- 
ing with  Israel's  inveterate  foes,  and  taking 
67 


68  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

every  opportunity  of  molestation  and  injury. 
When  Nebuchadnezzar  made  the  final  assault 
against  the  Holy  City,  it  was  the  children  of 
Edom  who  cried,  "  Raze  it,  raze  it,  even  to 
the  foundation  thereof." 

Esau  may  fairly  be  taken  as  an  emblem  of 
the  imperious  desires  of  the  flesh  that  will 
hardly  brook  restraint,  but  lust  against  the 
spirit,  fretting  for  their  wild  and  unrestrained 
indulgence.  For  one  morsel  of  meat  he  sold 
his  birthright;  and  we  all  know  moments 
when,  for  one  brief  spell  of  gratification,  we 
are  disposed  to  barter  away  our  noblest 
prerogatives  and  squander  our  most  sacred 
trust.  Who  has  not  stood  between  the  basin 
of  steaming  pottage — which  appeals  so  dain- 
tily to  the  hungry  sense — and  the  power  to 
pray,  to  know  God,  to  bless  mankind,  which 
are  the  sacred  prerogatives  of  the  soul? 
Many  a  time  has  our  choice  wavered  in  the 
balance ;  and  what  was  true  years  ago  may 
perhaps  be  true  still.  Edom  still  vexes  us 
and  makes  incursions  into  the  sacred  territory 
of  the  soul ;  the  flesh  is  still  vehement  within 
us ;  the  old  Adam  is  more  than  a  match  for 
the  young  Melanchthon. 

One  day  a  novel  and  blessed  spectacle 
greeted  the  prophet's  gaze.  Standing  on  the 
last  ranges  of  the  low  hills  which  sloped  down 
from  Jerusalem  toward  the  Edomite  terri- 
tories, he  descried  in  the  distance  the  figure 


THE   CONQUEROR  FROM  EDOM     69 

of  a  mighty  conqueror  coming  from  Edom, 
with  dyed  garments  from  Bozrah,  its  capital 
city,  glorious  in  his  apparel,  and  traveling  in 
the  greatness  of  his  strength.  When  within 
speaking  distance  he  asked  who  it  was,  and 
received  in  answer  the  reply : 

"The  mighty  Saviour!" 

Again  he  asked  the  reason  for  the  stains 
on  his  dress,  as  of  the  treader  of  grapes  in 
the  wine-press,  receiving  the  reply : 

"  It  is  the  life-blood  of  Israel's  foes,  the 
juice  of  the  vintage  of  Edom." 

From  that  moment  Israel  had  no  further 
need  for  alarm — from  that  quarter  at  least. 
There  in  the  desert  haze  she  could  always 
descry  the  figure  of  that  almighty  Victor  by 
whom  Edom  had  been  subdued.  Her  cities 
were  in  ruins,  her  palaces  leveled  to  the  ground, 
her  soldiers  had  bitten  the  dust,  and  there  was 
therefore  now  the  most  absolute  security. 

The  lesson  for  ourselves  is  obvious  and 
hardly  needs  enforcement.  Jesus  died  in  the, 
likeness  of  sinful  flesh ;  in  dying  it  was  rent. 
The  rending  veil  of  the  temple  and  the  rend- 
ing flesh  on  the  cross  teach  the  same  lesson 
—that  Jesus  mastered  the  flesh  by  the  spirit, 
overcame  it  as  He  uttered  His  dying  cry  of 
victory,  and  in  His  resurrection  came  up  from 
the  Edom  of  our  foes  radiant  with  victory, 
though  stained  with  the  blood-juice  of  the 
battle. 


70  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

Whatever  the  flesh  means  for  any  one  of 
us,  with  its  passion  and  pride,  its  self-asser- 
tion, its  imperious  will,  its  restless  yearning 
for  gratification  and  license — all  has  been 
met,  vanquished,  and  forever  trodden  under 
foot  by  Him  who  is  mighty  to  save  and  who 
travels  in  the  greatness  of  His  strength  to 
succor  the  weakest  and  most  often  defeated 
of  His  disciples. 

We  need  not  fear  the  flesh  if  we  abide  in 
Jesus,  because  He  has  so  absolutely  encoun- 
tered and  mastered  it,  and  if  we  abide  in 
Him  we  share  His  victory.  It  is  indeed  as 
much  ours  as  it  is  His.  It  is  ours  because 
we  are  one  with  Him.  It  was  His  that  it 
might  be  ours.  Let  us  meditate  on  this 
great  fact  until  it  has  become  part  of  the 
texture  of  our  inner  consciousness.  Let  us 
call  to  mind  the  special  form  of  pride,  selfish- 
ness, or  self-indulgence  that  most  perpetually 
masters  us  as  Edom  did  Israel,  and  let  us 
realize  as  a  matter  of  fact,  if  not  of  feeling  or 
consciousness,  that  this  has  been  specifically 
encountered  and  mastered  by  our  blessed 
Lord.  It  was  included  in  the  victory  of 
Calvary.  It  was  one  of  the  cities  or  town- 
ships in  that  territory  of  Edom  over  which 
He  cast  out  His  shoe,  and  therefore,  by  vir- 
tue of  union  with  Him  in  His  glorious  resur- 
rection, it  has  no  right  for  a  single  other 
moment  to  assert  supremacy  over  those  who 


THE   CONQUEROR  FROM  EDOM     71 

live  in  vital  and  conscious  fellowship  with 
Him.  It  is  a  great  point  gained  in  the  inner 
conflict  to  know  that  our  Edom  has  been 
vanquished ;  to  know  that  no  proud  lust  is 
too  strong  for  Jesus ;  to  know  that  His  vic- 
tory was  acquired  for  us  and  is  ours  if  only 
we  dare  avail  ourselves  of  its  prevalence. 

Whenever,  then,  the  Edom  of  the  flesh  as- 
serts itself,  fall  back  on  the  victory  of  the 
cross,  where  Christ  refused  to  hsten  to  its 
solicitations,  but  laid  down  His  life  and  gave 
Himself  to  the  rending  nail,  the  piercing 
spear.  Identify  yourself  with  that  victory ; 
beheve  that  the  body  of  sin  has  been  done 
away — that  we  should  no  more  be  in  bon- 
dage to  sin.  Assert  your  freedom  and  reckon 
that  the  living  Saviour  comes  from  your 
Edom,  leaving  it  a  defeated  and  devastated 
kingdom,  mighty  to  save  you  to  the  uttermost 
since  you  have  fled  to  Him  for  shelter,  suc- 
cor, and  salvation. 

As  long  as  the  soul  maintains  its  position 
in  the  risen  and  victorious  Son  of  God  it  is 
invulnerable.  The  flesh  may  chafe  for  its 
old  supremacy,  but  in  vain.  It  cannot  pass 
across  the  great  gulf  of  Christ's  grave  and 
resurrection ;  it  cannot  reassert  its  pristine 
power.  The  only  way,  therefore,  in  which 
Satan  can  succeed  in  bringing  us  again  be- 
neath the  power  of  the  flesh  is  either  by  hid- 
ing from  us  what  Christ  has  done  or  by 


72  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

leading  us  to  look  away  from  it  to  the  strength 
of  the  foe,  the  weakness  of  our  might,  the  per- 
petual failures  of  the  past. 

"  The  flesh  is  so  strong,"  the  tempter  says. 
"  Look  at  it  in  its  pride ;  is  it  likely  that  you 
will  ever  be  able  to  master  it?  " 

"You  are  so  weak,"  the  tempter  suggests. 
*'  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  you  can  hold 
your  ground  against  so  mighty  and  persistent 
an  adversary." 

"You  have  failed  so  often  in  the  past. 
In  spite  of  your  most  strenuous  efforts  and 
most  solemn  vows,  you  have  failed  and  failed 
again.  Each  failure  has  weakened  you.  Is 
it  likely  that  you  can  stand  where  you  have 
so  often  fallen?" 

If  the  soul  listens  to  these  suggestions  and 
looks  away  from  Jesus,  it  is  tempted  out  of 
that  abiding  fellowship  with  Him  through 
which  it  is  made  a  participator  of  His  victory. 
But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  it  refuses  to  have 
its  gaze  diverted  from  the  risen  Lord ;  if  it 
persists  in  its  repose  on  His  victorious  might ; 
if  it  dares  to  appropriate  the  position  which 
pertains  to  all  who  beheve,  as  seated  in  the 
heavenly  places,  far  above  all  principality, 
and  power,  and  might,  and  dominion — then 
the  demand  of  the  flesh  sinks  harmlessly  into 
foam  and  dies  away  upon  the  shore  on  which, 
a  moment  before,  it  had  thundered  forth  its 
demands. 


THE   CONQUEROR  FROM  EDOM     73 

This  is  the  victory  that  overcomes,  even 
our  faith — faith  in  what  Jesus  is,  faith  in 
what  He  has  done,  faith  in  the  might  of  His 
hand,  the  faithfulness  of  His  heart,  the  te- 
nacity of  His  love.  Oh,  heed  His  voice, 
weary,  troubled  heart!  He  speaks  in  right- 
eousness and  is  mighty  to  save.  Cherish  the 
unfailing  conviction  that  Jesus  stands  forever- 
more  between  thee  and  thy  foes. 


XII 
OUR   IDEALS 

"  Conformed  to  the  image  of  His  Son."— Rom. 
VIII.  29. 

How  much  an  ideal  may  do!  When  I 
was  a  Httle  boy  every  one  was  talking  of  the 
Crimean  War,  the  MalakofT,  the  Redan, 
Sebastopol.  Now  there  was  at  the  end  of 
our  playground  an  unsightly  bank  of  earth. 
This,  however,  became  to  us  lads  a  frowning 
fortress  with  massive  walls  and  threatening 
cannon,  and  we  were  the  Light  Brigade. 
With  horses  beneath  us  and  lances  in  rest, 
we  charged  and  carried  the  grim  old  fortress 
every  day  between  dinner  and  school.  Ah, 
I  was  captain  then,  with  a  few  trusty  officers, 
and  the  weight  of  the  campaign  upon  me. 
You  tell  me  it  was  only  a  mud-bank  and  a 
playground.  Nay,  verily;  it  was  a  battle- 
field for  all  the  world  to  me.  The  prosaic 
commonplace  was  idealized  by  the  roseate 
hue  of  that  young  fancy  which  shed  its  glow 
on  all. 

74 


OUR  IDEALS  75 

The  little  children  gather  and  dance  around 
the  barrel-organs  in  our  London  streets.  I 
always  walk  slower  to  watch  the  motions  of 
their  feet  and  the  smile  on  their  faces.  Again 
they  are  idealizing.  That  sloppy  street  is  a 
richly  carpeted  saloon,  and  they— little  gutter- 
snipes—are  real  ladies,  and  their  fluttering 
rags  are  ball-dresses,  and  that  untuneful 
clatter  is  a  band!  They  could  hardly  be 
happier  if  their  ideal  were  the  reahty,  so 
strongly  does  it  affect  the  reality. 

It  is  very  important  to  have  a  noble  ideal. 
Suppose  two  young  hearts  begin  to  love, 
or  that  they  have  entered  wedded  life ;  is  it 
not  of  inestimable  importance  to  read  to  them 
those  imperishable  words  in  which  Robert 
Browning  declares  his  love  to  his  wife,  and 
she  hers,  and  to  remind  them  how  he  yearly 
kissed  the  steps  of  the  church  at  Marylebone 
where  they  were  wed,  because  she  stepped 
up  them  to  the  marriage  altar?  Then  the 
man  takes  on  the  ideal  of  Browning  va  his 
behavior  toward  the  woman,  and  the  woman 
thinks  how  a  wife  so  loved  must  act. 

Or  suppose  a  young  minister  is  tempted 
to  indolence  or  unspirituality ;  is  it  not  per- 
emptory to  raise  his  ideal?  Give  him  the 
ideal  of  a  McCheyne,  a  Brainerd,  a  Gordon ; 
then,  as  he  returns  to  a  narrow  sphere  and 
awkward  personahties  and  starved  circum- 
stances, he  will  conduct  himself  among  them 


76  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

with  the  air  of  God's  own  nobility.  It  may 
be  only  a  little  chapel,  but  to  him  it  will  be- 
come a  minster ;  through  the  scrapings  of  a 
few  violins  he  will  hear  the  pealing  notes  of 
the  organ  ;  and  as  he  goes  in  and  out  among 
the  handful  of  poor  people  who  compose  his 
charge  the  spirit  of  Elijah  will  rest  on  Elisha, 
and  his  ideal  will  transform  them  into  a 
beautiful  flock. 

For  many  years  General  Gordon  was  my 
ideal.  How  I  read  and  read  again  the  story 
of  his  life  and  the  inner  story  given  in  his 
letters!  That  utter  trust  in  God  to  fulfil 
through  him  His  divine  purpose;  that  in- 
difference to  praise  or  blame  so  long  as  He 
was  pleased ;  that  singleness  of  purpose,  that 
strength  of  soul,  that  humility  which  would 
not  keep  the  presents  of  the  emperor  lest 
they  should  foster  a  spirit  of  ostentation! 
For  years  I  walked  the  battle-field  of  hfe  as 
he,  with  his  slim  walking-stick,  the  battle- 
fields of  China  and  Egypt. 

Young  people,  your  lives  may  seem  to  be 
prosaic  and  dull  enough,  your  opportunities 
limited,  your  associates  and  companions  un- 
interesting ;  but  in  the  midst  of  all  you  may 
reahze  your  ideals,  you  may  pass  as  noble  a 
life  as  in  a  palace  among  the  sweetest,  noblest 
souls.  Life  does  not  consist  in  what  we  have 
or  know  or  do,  in  the  people  about  us,  or  the 
drapery  by  which  the  bare  facts  of  existence 


OUR  IDEALS  77 

are  veiled,  but  in  what  we  are.  You  may 
make  believe  until  what  you  believe  in  is 
actually  realized.  Dare  to  believe  that  that 
wilderness  is  a  paradise  and  that  dry  land 
springs  of  water,  and  you  will  soon  find  it 
literally  so. 

But  there  is  no  ideal  Hke  that  presented  in 
the  character  of  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  no 
motto  so  wholesome  and  inspiring  as  to  ask, 
"What  would  Jesus  have  done?  "  no  ambi- 
tion so  ennobling  as  to  walk  through  the 
world  being  as  absolutely  Christlike  as  pos- 
sible, so  that  weary  and  fallen  souls  may  look 
up  to  us  and  think  that  Christ  has  come  again 
to  the  world,  and  bless  God  for  us.  In  Jesus 
there  is  the  complete  ideal  of  human  life: 
of  the  Child  at  Nazareth,  of  the  Servant  in 
the  workshop,  of  the  Lover  in  His  affection 
for  His  church,  of  the  Friend,  the  Sufferer, 
the  Patriot,  the  Saviour.  Let  your  spirit  soak 
itself  in  the  thought  of  Jesus  and  go  forth  to 
reproduce  Him,  till  that  employment  be- 
come the  carpenter's  shop ;  that  charge  of 
souls  Capernaum  or  Jerusalem  ;  that  necessity 
for  strong,  brave  words  the  temple  fa9ade ; 
that  perpetual  source  of  anguish  the  glade 
of  Gethsemane. 

Never  spare  yourself.  Do  not  slur  over 
your  failure  to  realize  your  ideal,  as  though 
it  were  a  trifling  and  insignificant  matter. 
Confess  it  to  yourself,  to  your  companion  in 


78  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

it,  and,  above  all,  to  God.  Nothing  will  so 
soon  spoil  the  ear  of  the  singer  as  inattention 
to  minor  inaccuracies  of  execution  and  ex- 
pression. When  once  you  permit  yourself 
to  fall  beneath  your  best  you  begin  to  drift 
rapidly  to  the  worst.  Run  not  as  uncertainly. 
Fight  not  as  one  beating  the  air.  Strive  as 
though  life  itself  depended  on  winning  the 
guerdon  of  success.  Plenty  of  voices  will 
urge  you  to  spare  yourself.  Like  Peter,  our 
friends  dissuade  us  from  the  cross:  "This 
shall  not  be  unto  thee."  Oh  for  grace  to 
be  merciless  to  ourselves! 

If  you  fall,  fall  with  your  face  still  toward 
your  ideal.  Never  give  it  up!  Like  the 
brave  Scot,  fling  the  heart  of  the  Bruce  for- 
ward into  the  battle  and  follow.  The  cliff 
towers  far  away  into  the  blue,  and  you  have 
tried  many  paths  to  scale  it  in  vain,  but  there 
is  a  path  that  other  men  have  trodden  and 
succeeded.  Never  rest  till  you  have  found 
it  and  stand  victorious. 

Be  very  7nerciful  to  others.  Compare  their 
worst  with  your  worst,  and  not,  as  so  many 
do,  other  people's  worst  with  your  best.  You 
cannot  be  blind  to  their  faults,  but  you  can 
be  infinitely  tender  and  compassionate.  This 
will  keep  your  heart  sweet  and  young,  like  a 
spring  of  fresh  water  amid  an  ocean  of  brine. 
The  most  trying  temperament  with  which 
you  may  be  yoked  will  only  bring  out  your 


OUR  IDEALS  79 

noblest  traits  by  giving  them  abundant  ex- 
ercise. 

Above  all,  seek  the  grace  and  power  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  He  alone  can  give  you  the 
ideal,  and  He  alone  can  enable  you  to  plant 
the  sprig  of  paradise  in  the  unkindly  soil  of 
your  heart  and  life  and  nurture  it  into  a  noble 
plant.  He  worketh  in  us  to  will  and  to  do 
of  His  good  pleasure.  Only  work  out  what 
He  works  in.  Whenever  the  Holy  Spirit 
definitely,  earnestly,  and  persistently  urges 
you  in  a  certain  direction,  be  sure  to  yield 
prompt  obedience.  If  your  will  falters  ask 
Him  to  work  in  you  to  will ;  if  your  power 
fails  trust  Him  to  work  in  you  to  work  of 
His  good  pleasure.  Be  phant  and  obedient 
and  you  shall  eat  the  fruit  of  the  land. 


XIII 
HOW   TO    RECEIVE 

Rom.  v.  II,  17. 

There  are  two  remarkable  verses  in  Ro- 
mans V.  which  employ  this  word  "  receive," 
and  which  hold  the  key  of  the  richest,  deep- 
est, and  most  blessed  life.  The  one  tells  us 
that  we  should  7'eceive  the  at-one-ment,  and 
the  other  that  we  should  receive  the  abun- 
dance of  God's  grace  and  reign  in  this  mortal 
life  as  we  hope  one  day  to  reign  in  the  eter- 
nal life  of  heaven.  We  must  not  only  ask, 
but  receive;  we  must  pass  from  seeking  to 
finding ;  we  must  never  leave  the  door  till  it 
has  been  opened  to  us. 

There  is  a  difference  between  supplication 
or  entreaty  and  this  attitude  of  our  spirit. 
In  the  former  we  implore  God  to  give  us 
what  we  suppose  can  only  be  gained  by  the 
urgency  of  our  entreaty ;  in  the  latter  we  take 
what,  before  we  asked,  God  had  placed  within 
our  reach.  The  beautiful  garments  had  been 
prepared— it  was  for  us  to  don  them;  the 
80 


HOW  TO  RECEIVE  81 

armor  was  at  hand — it  was  for  us  to  gird  it 
on  ;  the  water  of  Hfe  was  gushing  at  our  feet 
— it  was  for  us  to  dip  it  up. 

It  might  be  feared  that  words  Hke  these 
would  lead  some  to  spend  less  time  in  the 
prayer-closet  than  formerly.  This  might 
appear  in  theory,  but  it  is  not  so  in  practice. 
On  the  contrary,  there  is  more  interest  in  our 
daily  converse  with  God  when  we  find  that 
we  are  able  to  do  definite  transacting  with 
Him,  bring  from  His  presence  blessed  and 
evident  gifts,  and  store  spiritual  force  in  those 
sacred  moments.  The  space  once  occupied 
by  the  vague  entreaty  or  the  vagrant  impulse 
is  now  filled  with  adoration,  or  with  thanks- 
giving for  blessing  received,  or  with  interces- 
sion for  others,  and  our  heart  becomes  an 
altar  from  which  the  clear  flame  is  ever 
ascending,  with  as  little  as  possible  of  the 
more  selfish  and  personal  element. 

It  is  noticeable  that  this  word  is  most  often 
used  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Comparatively 
rarely  are  we  told  to  ask  for  Him ;  much 
more  often  are  we  bidden  to  receive  Him  by 
a  living  faith.  "  He  breathed  on  them,  and 
said.  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost." 

Let  us  notice  some  conditions  of  the  fac- 
ulty of  receptiveness. 

I.  We  7nust  be  still  before  God.  The  life 
around  is  in  this  age  preeminently  one  of  rush 
and  effort.     It  is  the  age  of  the  express- train 


82  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

and  electric  telegraph.  Years  are  crowded 
into  months  and  weeks  into  days.  This 
feverish  haste  threatens  the  religious  life. 
The  stream  has  already  entered  our  churches 
and  stirred  their  quiet  pools.  Meetings 
crowd  on  meetings.  The  same  energetic 
souls  are  found  at  them  all,  and  engaged  in 
many  good  works  besides.  But  we  must  be- 
ware that  we  do  not  substitute  in  our  own 
experience  the  active  for  the  contemplative, 
the  valley  for  the  mountain-top.  Neither 
can  with  safety  be  divorced  from  the  other. 
The  sheep  must  go  in  and  out.  The  blood 
must  come  back  to  the  heart  to  be  recharged 
with  oxygen  before  being  impelled  again  to 
the  extremities. 

We  must  make  time  to  be  alone  with  God. 
The  closet  and  the  shut  door  are  indispen- 
sable. We  must  lose  the  glare  of  the  sunny 
piazza,  that  we  may  see  the  calm  angel 
figures  bending  above  the  altar.  We  must 
escape  the  din  of  the  world  to  become  ac- 
customed to  the  accents  of  the  still  small 
voice.  Like  David,  we  must  sit  before  the 
Lord.  Happy  are  they  who  have  an  observa- 
tory in  their  heart-house,  to  which  they  can 
often  retire  beneath  the  great  arch  of  eternity, 
turning  their  telescope  to  the  mighty  constel- 
lations that  burn  beyond  life's  fever,  and 
reaching  regions  where  the  breath  of  human 
applause  or  censure  cannot  follow. 


IfOlV  TO  RECEIVE  83 

It  is  only  in  such  moments  that  the  best 
spiritual  gifts  will  loom  on  our  \qsion,  or  we 
shall  have  grace  to  receive  them.  It  is  im- 
possible to  rush  into  God's  presence,  catch 
up  anything  we  fancy,  and  run  off  with  it. 
To  attempt  this  will  end  in  mere  delusion 
and  disappointment.  Nature  will  not  unveil 
her  rarest  beauty  to  the  chance  tourist. 
Pictures  which  are  the  result  of  a  life  of 
work  do  not  disclose  their  secret  loveHness 
to  the  saunterer  down  a  gallery.  No  char- 
acter can  be  read  at  a  glance.  And  God's 
best  cannot  be  ours  apart  from  patient  wait- 
ing in  His  holy  presence.  The  superficial 
may  be  put  off  with  a  parable,  a  pretty  story, 
but  it  is  not  given  such  to  know  the  mysteries 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

2.  We  must  be  possessed  by  an  eager  desire. 
There  is  a  difference  between  wishing  for 
a  thing  and  willing  it.  We  pass  a  shop-win- 
dow filled  with  choice  and  expensive  articles, 
and  say  lightly,  "  I  should  hke  to  have  this 
or  the  other."  But  the  mere  wish  does  not 
suffice  to  give  us  what  we  like,  because  it  is 
not  strong  enough  to  induce  us  to  part  with 
our  money  to  obtain  it.  In  a  single  after- 
noon we  wish  for  a  hundred  differing  objects, 
and  forget  them  all  within  an  hour.  But 
how  different  to  this  is  the  fixed  determina- 
tion, the  settled  purpose,  of  the  will  I  The 
lad  catches  sight  of  some  equipment  for  his 


84  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

sport,  the  student  of  a  precious  book,  the 
lover  of  a  rare  and  jeweled  ornament  which 
he  covets  for  the  one  he  loves.  In  each  case 
the  will  is  wrought  upon  till  it  resolves  to 
acquire  at  any  cost.  Then  privation  and 
self-sacrifice  and  delay  are  cheerfully  en- 
countered. Nothing  can  extinguish  or 
slacken  the  determination  that  follows  hard 
after  its  quest.  So  with  us.  We  must  hunger 
and  thirst ;  we  must  be  possessed  by  strong 
and  passionate  desire ;  we  must  be  resolved 
to  use  even  violence  to  take  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  The  expressions  of  Scripture  are 
all  so  intense :  the  hart  pants  for  the  water- 
brooks  ;  Jacob  will  not  let  the  angel  go ;  the 
widow  troubles  the  unjust  judge  day  and 
night.  We  too  shall  have  this  strong  desire 
if  we  will  let  the  Spirit  of  God  produce  it 
within  our  hearts.  But  the  merchantman 
must  be  bent  on  seeking  and  finding  the 
goodly  pearl.  We  must  strive  to  enter  the 
strait  gate.  We  must  agonize,  to  use  the 
aposde's  word,  as  the  athlete  for  the  crown. 
3.  We  must  have  a  promise  in  our  ha?id. 
This  is  the  true  method  of  dealing  with  God. 
Search  the  Bible  for  some  holy  word  which 
exactly  fits  your  case.  It  will  not  be  hard 
to  find  one,  since  it  abounds  with  personal 
incidents  culled  from  every  conceivable  va- 
riety of  life.  Then,  when  it  has  been  dis- 
covered, and  perhaps  borne  in  on  you  by  the 


HOW  TO  DECEIVE  85 

divine  Spirit,  take  it  with  you  into  the  pres- 
ence of  God,  or  place  your  finger  upon  it  as 
you  pass  into  the  presence-chamber  with 
hushed  and  reverent  step.  Every  place 
which  the  sole  of  your  foot  shall  tread  shall 
be  yours  ;  such  was  the  olden  promise.  And 
its  counterpart  is  realized  when  we  can  put 
our  foot  down  on  some  definite  word  of  God 
and  reverently  say,  "  I  ask  that  Thou  would- 
est  fulfil  this  for  me.  Do  as  Thou  hast  said. 
Give  me  the  portion  of  goods  that  falleth  to 
me.  Let  me  know  all  Thy  meaning  hidden 
here." 

All  spiritual  things  are  ours  in  Jesus,  but 
they  are  only  revealed  to  us  one  by  one  as 
we  need.  Our  need  is  intended  to  make  us 
look  up  for  and  claim  the  blessing  intended 
to  meet  it ;  and  the  promise  is  God's  invita- 
tion to  come  to  God  for  it. 

4.  Reckon  on  God.  If  you  desire  spiritual 
gifts,  not  for  your  own  gratification,  but  for 
the  glory  of  Christ ;  if,  so  far  as  you  know, 
your  heart  is  rid  of  evil  and  your  life  of  sin- 
ful habit ;  if  you  perceive  that  the  promise  is 
for  you,  because  you  are  not  only  a  son,  but 
an  heir  of  God  and  a  joint  heir  with  Christ ; 
if  you  feel  an  eager  desire  that  God  has  in- 
stilled to  lead  you  to  this  very  point — then 
open  your  mouth  wide  and  beheve  that  God 
fills  it ;  unshutter  every  window  and  believe 
that  the  light  enters  ;  throw  wide  every  aper- 


86  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

ture  and  believe  that  you  have  received  what 
you  needed  and  sought.  According  to  your 
faith  it  shall  be  unto  you.  What  you  have 
been  able  to  take  by  faith,  that  you  count 
upon.  You  may  not  have  the  emotion  you 
expected,  nor  the  sense  of  blessing  you  looked 
for,  but  you  will  have  God,  God's  gift,  God's 
answer  to  your  faith.  And  you  may  go  your 
way  and  reckon  that  you  have  what  you 
sought.  Then  in  some  moment  of  need,  or 
when  you  least  expect  it,  or  when  engaged  in 
wonted  toils,  some  glad  consciousness  of  joy 
or  peace,  or  nearness  to  Christ,  or  power  over 
others  will  be  the  evidence  that  you  did  re- 
ceive. 


XIV 
OUR   EQUABLENESS 

"  Continue  in  prayer,  and  watch."— Col.  iv.  2. 

There  are  many  among  us  who  are  either 
very  up  or  very  down.  The  pendulum  of 
their  Kfe  is  always  swinging  up  to  its  extreme 
height  or  down  to  its  extreme  depth.  They 
are  either  standing  on  the  crest  of  the  moun- 
tain, intoxicated  with  the  exhilarating  air,  or 
they  are  lost  in  the  deep  ravine,  where  the 
sunshine  hardly  penetrates  through  the  over- 
hanging branches.  They  are  not  the  happi- 
est temperaments  to  live  with.  On  the  whole, 
give  me  for  traveling  a  good  level  road,  at  a 
moderate  elevation,  and  I  will  gladly  dispense 
with  the  succession  of  ascents,  each  of  which 
is  followed  by  its  descent. 

There  is  another  class  of  people  who  are 
excessively  amiable  and  pleasant  to  you  to- 
day, but  when  you  meet  them  to-morrow  they 
are  as  cold  and  distant  as  possible.  These 
are  creatures  of  moods  and  tenses.  They 
resemble  the  month  of  March,  which  may 
87 


88  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

be  warm  and  beautiful  or  as  piercing  with 
shafts  of  cold.  To  be  friends  with  such  peo- 
ple is  to  expose  one's  self  to  constant  unrest. 
You  never  know  how  you  will  find  them,  and 
must  always  go  into  their  society  provided 
with  a  coat  and  umbrella  in  case  of  storms. 

There  is  yet  another  class,  who  are  some- 
times on  fire  for  God  and  the  souls  of  men, 
burning  with  clear  and  ardent  flame,  before 
which  other  souls  stand  deeply  rebuked. 
We  say  instinctively,  "Who  are  these  which 
are  arrayed  in  these  dazzling  garments,  and 
whence  came  they?  "  But  after  a  few  weeks 
the  fire  dies  down,  the  enthusiasm  cools. 
They  do  not  pray  with  the  same  fervor ;  they 
have  given  up  their  buttonhoHng  of  strangers 
and  their  entreaties  to  their  friends ;  they 
have  renounced  the  system  of  Bible  study 
which  they  took  up  with  such  zest ;  they  are 
absent  from  the  class  and  service  into  which 
they  plunged  with  so  much  vigor.  They 
remind  one  of  the  paper  and  chips  which  the 
express-train  catches  up  in  its  rush,  but  which, 
after  eddying  for  a  Httle  in  its  wake,  drop 
down  again  to  silence  and  neglect  till  the 
next  rushes  by. 

On  all  these  might  be  written  the  inscrip- 
tion which  the  dying  Jacob  engraved  upon 
the  life  of  Reuben  :  "  Unstable  as  water,  thou 
shalt  not  excel "  (Gen.  xlix.  4). 

Some  of  this  comes  from  undue  excitement 


OUR  EQUABLENESS  89 

and  unnatural  overstrain.  We  travel  at  such 
a  speed,  there  must  be  moments  of  reaction 
when  the  nervous  system  rebounds.  We  hve 
so  near  the  limits  of  our  strength  that  we  have 
none  to  draw  upon  in  hours  of  crisis,  and 
have  to  make  demands  on  our  reserve  which 
seriously  tax  our  powers  of  recuperation. 
We  do  more  and  attempt  more  than  we  have 
power  for.  Moreover,  we  fail  to  allow  for 
the  great  influence  of  our  nervous  system  on 
our  emotional  life,  or  to  distinguish  between 
our  emotions  and  our  will. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  overstrain  soon 
affects  the  nervous  tissues,  and  these  imme- 
diately register  their  condition  on  the  emo- 
tions. The  prophet,  exhausted  by  the 
demands  of  Carmel,  asks  that  he  may  die ; 
the  Baptist,  shut  up  in  the  prison  walls  from 
the  free,  glad  air,  doubts  whether  Jesus  be 
the  Christ.  Under  the  impulse  of  inspiring 
oratory  and  the  excitement  of  vast  crowds 
we  greatly  resolve  and  greatly  begin ;  but 
when  these  have  passed  our  pace  diminishes 
till  we  come  to  a  stand.  We  allow  ourselves 
to  be  drawn  in  a  certain  direction  by  impulse 
rather  than  by  principle,  by  our  attraction  to 
people  rather  than  by  the  thought  of  how  we 
may  serve  them ;  and  then  after  a  while  we 
lose  our  interest  in  them  and  look  at  them 
with  a  cold  and  critical  eye. 

Young  people,  it  is  of  the  utmost  impor- 


90  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

tance  that  you  should  watch  against  this  un- 
equableness.  Do  not  be  like  feather-down 
floating  in  the  air,  or  the  flotsam  or  jetsam 
carried  to  and  fro  on  the  face  of  the  tide. 
Guard  against  fickleness.  There  are  several 
safeguards  and  preventives. 

Cultivate  strong  habits  of  right  thinking  and 
right  doing.  Oh  for  trumpet  tones  to  make 
all  the  young  people  of  our  time  take  heed! 
In  after  hfe  it  is  of  immense  help  for  Hving 
highly  and  nobly  to  have  the  assistance  of 
habit — not  simply  to  do  a  right  thing  be- 
cause you  are  impelled  to  it,  but  because  such 
is  your  habit ;  not  to  read  your  chapter  for  a 
few  mornings  because  you  have  been  to  a 
consecration  meeting  or  a  convention,  but 
because  it  has  become  your  habit  from  child- 
hood to  do  so;  not  to  act  courteously  and 
pleasantly  because  you  have  freshly  come 
from  the  sunshine  and  air  of  some  lovely 
environment,  but  because  you  have  made  it 
the  habit  of  your  Hfe  to  be  a  true  knight  of 
the  cross — chivalrous,  courteous,  self-forget- 
ting, thoughtful  of  the  yearnings  of  other 
souls  for  sympathy  and  help  in  hfe's  rough 
way ;  and  not  to  do  your  Christian  service 
under  a  spasm  of  interest  wrought  in  you  by 
the  suggestion  of  another  or  a  passing  pity, 
but  because  your  Master,  Christ,  has  laid  it  on 
you  as  a  solemn  duty  to  Himself. 

We  build  up  such  habits  by  single  actions, 


OUR  EQUABLENESS  91 

and  especially  in  the  earlier  part  of  our  lives. 
If  only  young  people  would  take  themselves 
in  hand  and  concentrate  thought  on  the  well- 
doing of  each  single  act  of  their  early  years, 
they  would  find  habits  forming  around  them, 
strong  and  enduring  as  iron,  which  would 
greatly  help  them  after  in  moments  of  strain 
and  stress.  Even  to  form  such  a  habit  as 
early  rising,  and  persistently  watching  each 
morning  hour,  and  insisting  on  obedience  to 
the  whirr  of  the  alarm,  will  be  of  immense 
importance  in  after  life.  What  is  difficult  at 
first  becomes  in  time  a  second  nature  and  a 
permanent  acquisition  to  the  furniture  of  the 
soul. 

It  would  be  well  to  fix  the  following  saying 
by  an  eminent  writer  deeply  in  the  soul : 

"  Sow  a  thought,  you  reap  an  act; 
Sow  an  act,  you  reap  a  habit ; 
Sow  a  habit,  you  reap  a  character ; 
Sow  a  character,  you  reap  a  destiny." 

Live  in  your  standing  in  Christ  Jesus. 
Quoting  from  my  own  experience,  I  have 
found  this  of  priceless  worth.  In  fact,  when 
a  friend  asked  me  recently  whether  I  did  not 
suffer  from  fits  of  depression  as  a  natural 
reaction  from  strenuous  effort,  I  instantly  re- 
minded him  that  one  might  be  very  sensitive 
to  such  a  nervous  rebound  and  yet  guard 
against  its  injuring  or  depressing  the  spiritual 


92  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

life,  first  by  attributing  it  to  its  right  cause, 
and  next  by  remembering  that  no  depression 
of  the  nervous  system  can  affect  our  standing 
in  Jesus,  which  is  altogether  apart  from  our- 
selves and  altogether  determined  by  what 
He  has  done  and  is. 

You  may  be  tired  and  unnerved,  unable  to 
feel  as  you  are  wont,  below  par,  and  out  of 
sorts ;  all  around  you  may  be  depressing  and 
difficult;  a  morbid  wish  to  be  quit  of  it  all 
may  haunt  you ;  a  sense  that  God  is  dealing 
hardly  with  you  may  stay  the  song  of  your 
soul;  but  remember  that  you  are  yet  His 
child ;  that  in  Jesus  you  are  accepted  and 
beloved ;  that  your  place  is  beside  Him  in 
the  heavenhes.  Rise,  my  heart ;  thou  art  the 
child  of  the  great  King ;  thy  life  is  hidden 
with  Christ  in  God ;  thine  are  the  illimitable 
ages.     All  this  is  true,  however  thou  feelest. 

Fi7id co7npensation  in  God.  If  sad,  find  rest 
and  peace  in  Him ;  if  down  and  depressed, 
claim  His  joy  ;  if  glad  and  buoyant,  seek  His 
lowliness  and  meekness.  If  wanting  in  ear- 
nestness, ask  His  good  Spirit  to  quicken  you ; 
if  too  exuberant,  ask  Him  to  calm  you.  If 
standing  high  on  the  mount,  ask  that  you 
may  walk  with  Him  in  your  high  places.  If 
attracted  to  people,  ask  that  He  may  ratify 
the  friendship,  always  keeping  it  in  Himself ; 
if  repelled,  seek  that  you  may  love  them  with 
His  love.     Let  the  nature  and  love  of  God 


OUR  EQUABLENESS  93 

be  the  makeweight  and  compensation  for  all 
that  is  dark  and  sad  or  evil  in  yourself  and 
your  surroundings.  "Why  art  thou  cast 
down,  O  my  soul?  and  why  art  thou  dis- 
quieted within  me?  hope  thou  in  God." 

Exercise  a  strong  self-restraint.  Never 
have  mercy  on  yourself,  or  excuse  any  deflec- 
tion from  your  own  high  ideal.  Be  harder  on 
yourself  than  your  grimmest  critic.  Never 
say  that  weariness  or  depression  or  heart- 
sickness  can  excuse  anything  which  is  not 
perfectly  lovely  and  of  good  report.  Put  on 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  wear  His  image 
ever.  Trust  the  Holy  Spirit  to  make  His 
presence  ever  more  real  and  absorbing. 


XV 

UNSPOTTED 

"  Unspotted  from  the  world."— James  i.  27. 

There  are  many  definitions  of  religion. 
Some  say  that  it  is  right  thinking,  others  that 
it  is  right  feehng ;  but  James  strikes  through 
these  and  says  that  the  core  of  real  religion 
is  unspottedness  (James  i.  27). 

The  world  is  a  very  filthy  place.  We  can- 
not walk  along  its  causeways  without  the 
risk  of  being  bespattered  from  head  to  foot. 
A  sea  of  ink  splashes  up  against  our  homes 
and  sends  its  tides  up  into  drawing-rooms 
and  kitchens,  churches  and  schools,  and  it  is 
very  hard  to  avoid  its  drenching  spray.  Only 
a  few  elect  souls  are  able  to  keep  themselves 
unspotted  from  the  world.  Yet  it  is  possi- 
ble. The  Lord  Jesus  was  a  Lamb  without 
blemish  and  without  spot.  He  offered  Him- 
self unto  God  without  spot,  through  the 
eternal  Spirit,  and  He  is  able  to  keep  us  from 
stumbhng  and  present  us  without  spot  before 
the  presence  of  His  glory  with  exceeding 
94 


UNSPOTTED  95 

joy.  Oh  that  we  may  all  experience  His 
keeping  grace  and  be  at  last  included  in  the 
bride  which  He  shall  present  to  Himself, 
glorious,  without  blemish  and  without  spot! 

It  is  a  very  attractive  figure.  Untrodden 
snow,  like  that  which  Hes  for  miles  over  the 
high  Alps,  the  lily  with  its  untarnished  calyx, 
the  white  surplice  of  the  chorister  lad,  the 
sheen  of  the  silver  moonlight,  the  purity  of 
white  heat,  the  transparency  of  light,  the 
flesh  of  a  babe,  are  very  attractive  to  us. 
Probably  there  is  no  story  from  the  Old 
Testament  more  fascinating  in  interest  than 
that  which  tells  how  the  leprous  flesh  of  the 
old  warrior  Naaman  became  pure  as  that  of 
a  little  child,  and  no  text  more  precious,  be- 
cause more  suggestive  of  unsullied  purity, 
than  that  which  declares  that  though  sins  be 
as  scarlet  they  may  be  as  white  as  snow,  and 
though  they  be  red  like  crimson  they  may  be 
as  wool. 

Why  is  this,  except  that  we  feel  so  far 
away  from  our  ideal  and  find  some  satisfac- 
tion in  admiring  it  from  afar?  Perhaps  there 
is  something  in  each  of  us  which  instinctively 
craves  kinship  with  unspottedness.  We  dimly 
remember  our  high  origin,  and  mourn  our 
loss  of  the  stamp  and  hall-mark  of  purity 
with  which  God  impressed  us  when  Adam 
passed  from  His  molding  hand  in  paradise. 
We  are  attracted  by  that  for  which  we  were 


96  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

created  and  have  lost.  It  has  a  divine  fasci- 
nation for  sin-weary  hearts.  How  dehghtful 
the  snow- clad  peaks  of  the  Himalayas  appear 
to  the  dwellers  on  the  scorching  plains  of 
India! 

But  unspottedness  is  as  necessary  as  it  is 
attractive.  God  cannot  use  us  if  we  are  in- 
different to  the  claims  of  purity  and  careless 
whether  we  are  spotted  or  not.  He  is  so 
strict  that  He  bids  us  hate  the  very  gar- 
ment which  is  spotted  with  the  flesh.  "  Be 
ye  clean,  ye  that  bear  the  vessels  of  the 
Lord." 

He  is  so  holy  that  He  cannot  unveil  His 
rarest  love  to  those  who  lack  sensitiveness 
in  regard  to  their  walk  through  the  world. 
We  are  told  that  only  the  pure  in  heart  can 
see  God.  Nothing  can  surpass  His  tender 
mercy  for  those  who  have  fallen  and  become 
blemished  and  spotted  through  weakness, 
ignorance,  and  passion ;  but  nothing  can  com- 
pensate for  a  thoughtless,  careless,  worldly 
life,  in  which  the  soul  shows  no  anxiety  to 
keep  itself  unspotted. 

The  life  of  heaven  down  here,  and  the 
heaven  that  is  yet  to  be,  are  alike  impossible 
save  to  those  who,  so  far  as  they  know,  en- 
deavor to  keep  themselves  unspotted.  "  This 
ye  know  of  a  surety,  that  no  fornicator,  nor 
unclean  person,  .  .  .  hath  any  inheritance 
in  the  kingdom  of  Christ  and  God."    Would 


UNSPOTTED  97 

you  have  God  come  to  make  His  mansion 
with  you?  You  must  cleanse  yourself  from 
all  filthiness  of  the  flesh  and  spirit.  Would 
you  go  at  last  to  make  your  mansion  with 
God?  You  must  wash  your  robe  and  make 
it  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.  Only 
those  who  wash  their  robes  have  any  right  to 
the  tree  of  life  and  to  enter  in  through  the 
gates  into  the  city  (Rev.  xxii.  14,  R.  V.). 

But  it  seems  an  impossible,  ifjipracticable 
dream.  The  lives  of  the  greatest  saints  are 
entitled  "  Confessions."  Every  one  in  turn 
takes  the  bow  and  aims  the  arrow  at  the  tar- 
get, but  is  compelled  to  acknowledge  failure. 
One  only,  born  of  woman,  ever  hit  the  silver 
center  of  absolute  unspottedness ;  all  else 
must  appropriate  the  acknowledgment,  "  I 
have  sinned,  and  perverted  that  which  was 
right,  and  it  has  not  profited."  Job  said  he 
was  vile  ;  Isaiah,  that  his  lips  were  unclean  ; 
Peter,  that  he  was  a  sinful  man ;  John,  that 
for  a  man  to  say  that  he  had  not  sinned  was 
to  be  self-deceived.  In  such  a  world,  with 
such  a  nature,  opposed  by  such  an  adversary, 
how  can  we  hope  to  be  unspotted?  And 
even  if  we  are  unspotted  before  men,  what 
are  we  before  the  sight  of  God,  to  whom  the 
heavens  are  not  clean? 

But  God  waits  to  assist  us.  We  cannot  help 
having  a  nature  keenly  susceptible  to  evil ;  we 
cannot  avoid  being  tempted.    The  Evil  One 


98  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

will  knock  at  the  door,  and  even  shout  his 
unhallowed  suggestions  through  the  keyhole. 
The  world  and  society  are  no  friends  to 
grace ;  the  newspapers  are  spotted  with 
divorce-court  and  other  items ;  the  current 
novels  are  spotted  with  suggestive  scenes  and 
allusions ;  the  streets  are  filled  with  spotted 
men  and  women ;  the  shop-windows  are  lit- 
tered with  spotted  photographs.  But  God 
is  stronger  and  greater  than  all.  He  would 
not  command  what  He  cannot  help  us  to 
realize.  It  is  clear  that  by  His  loving  grace 
we  may  so  live  as  to  win  the  beatitude  of  the 
unspotted.  But  we  must  use  constantly  the 
blood,  the  water,  and  the  fire. 

I.  The  blood  of  Jesus.  It  cleanseth  from 
all  sin.  If  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats  and 
the  ashes  of  an  heifer  sprinkling  the  unclean 
availed,  under  the  old  law,  for  the  purifying 
of  the  flesh,  how  much  more  shall  the  blood 
of  Christ  cleanse  our  consciences  and  make 
us  without  spot  before  Him  in  love!  Di- 
rectly we  confess  our  sins  all  the  evil  stains 
which  have  been  contracted  vanish  utterly 
and  forever.  The  microscope  can  detect 
blood-marks  in  linen  which  has  been  washed, 
but  no  magnifying  power  can  ever  discover 
sin  which  has  been  once  confessed  and  put 
away.  "  It  may  be  sought  for,  but  it  shall 
not  be  found."  You  may  confess  other  sins 
if  you  will,  but  never  that.    God  will  remem- 


UNSPOTTED  99 

ber  it  no  more.     You  may  remember  it  to 
humble  you,  but  not  to  confess. 

2.  The  Word  of  God  is  compared  to  water. 
Christ  cleanses  His  church  through  the  Word, 
as  in  a  laver  of  water.  Depend  on  it  that 
there  is  no  better  method  of  a  young  man 
cleansing  his  way  than  by  taking  heed  thereto 
according  to  God's  Word.  We  read  the 
Bible  for  purposes  of  a  truer  knowledge  of 
God  and  His  ways  and  for  spiritual  quicken- 
ing ;  but  let  us  use  it  more  frequently  as  the 
bath  of  the  spirit ;  let  us  bathe  in  it ;  let  us 
revel  in  it  as  the  grimy  children  of  the  slums 
in  the  laughing  wavelets  of  river  and  sea. 

3.  The  fire  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  If  you  will 
hand  over  to  Him  your  thoughts  He  will  run 
them  through  a  sieve  of  flame,  burning  out 
the  germs  of  evil  and  allowing  only  the  pure, 
natural,  and  guileless  to  pass.  There  is  no 
such  preservative  against  the  germs  of  dis- 
ease as  fire.  Ask  the  Holy  Spirit  to  be 
within  you  as  fire  consuming  the  evil.  Seek 
to  live  with  the  devouring  fire  and  to  dwell 
in  the  everlasting  burnings  of  God's  most 
holy  and  loving  nature.  Never  leave  your 
chamber  in  the  morning  without  putting  on 
the  armor  of  hght  which  is  woven  of  flame, 
and  be  sure  that,  though  spots  may  alight, 
they  cannot  remain  amid  its  intense  heat. 

The  unspotted  are  most  tender  and  merci- 
ful to  the  spotted.     They  at  least  dare  not 


100  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

draw  their  garments  around  them  and  shake 
themselves  free  of  defihng  contact.  They 
know  too  well  the  perils  from  which  they 
have  been  rescued  and  their  own  weakness, 
and  they  are  merciful. 


XVI 

USE  YOUR  SENSES 

**  To  discern  both  good  and  evil."— Heb.  v.  14. 

The  five  senses  of  the  body  have  their 
correlatives  in  the  soul.  From  earliest  child- 
hood we  naturally  use  the  outward ;  the  eye, 
ear,  nose,  mouth,  and  sense  of  touch  are 
under  constant  requisition.  But  there  are 
thousands  of  Christians  in  whom  the  senses 
of  the  soul  are  dormant  and  useless.  They 
have  eyes,  but  they  see  not;  ears,  but  they 
hear  not ;  mouths  that  do  not  taste,  and  hands 
that  cannot  feel.  And  it  is  for  this  reason 
that  they  always  remain  in  the  babe  condi- 
tion, needing  to  be  fed  by  spoon  and  to  be 
wheeled  about  in  a  perambulator. 

The  great  use  of  ministers,  to  many 
people,  is  to  serve  as  nurses,  perpetually 
feeding,  carrying,  soothing,  or  supplying  with 
sweetmeats  and  comfort. 

If  we  are  ever  to  grow  out  of  the  babe  into 
the  mature  state  we  must  learn  by  reason  of 
101 


102  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

use  to  exercise  our  senses  to  discern  good  and 
evil  (Heb.  v.  14). 

Let  us  take  the  senses  of  the  soul  in  order : 
The  Sense  of  Smell. — The  wholesome- 
ness  or  otherwise  of  natural  objects  is  largely- 
indicated  by  their  odors.  What  is  fragrant 
is  for  the  most  part  wholesome,  what  is 
noisome,  deleterious  to  health.  We  ought 
to  be  very  thankful  for  the  bad  smells  in  the 
world  where  they  indicate  the  presence  of 
corruption  and  death.  They  have  been 
arranged  by  a  divine  Providence  in  order 
to  warn  us  away  from  places  and  sub- 
stances that  would  depress  and  imperil 
health.  Imagine  a  world  in  which  hurtful 
things  were  inodorous  or  attractive  in  their 
scent!  In  how  many  cases  should  we  be 
lured  to  ruin!  God  has  labeled  hurtful 
things  "  Poison "  by  their  deterrent  and 
noxious  odors,  which  repel  us  as  far  from 
them  as  possible. 

The  nose,  therefore,  preserves  us  from 
many  an  unseen  danger.  It  is  a  great  priva- 
tion to  be  without  the  sense  of  smell.  Its 
loss  is  the  forfeiture  of  one  of  the  warning 
signals  on  the  road  of  life.  A  quick  scent 
enables  one  to  escape  from  the  neighborhood 
of  disease-breeding  spots.  I  had  an  illustra- 
tion of  this  the  other  day.  On  m.y  return 
from  America  I  found  my  sense  of  smell 
greatly  sharpened  by  the  sea  voyage,  and 


USE    YOUR  SENSES  103 

was  able  to  detect  the  presence  of  a  sewage 
farm  which  had  escaped  the  observation  of 
my  friends,  securing  for  them  as  well  as  for 
myself  immunity  from  the  effects  of  unde- 
sirable contact  with  sewage  matter.  How 
often,  too,  a  whiff  of  foul  odor  has  made  one 
turn  immediately  aside,  hold  the  breath,  and 
make  for  fresh  air  ! 

In  the  soul  there  is  a  similar  power.  God 
has  endowed  us  with  a  marvelous  sensitive- 
ness to  the  presence  of  evil  when  it  is  yet  at 
a  distance.  Before  the  evil  thing  has  come 
within  measurable  distance  of  the  soul,  while 
it  is  only  a  whiff  in  the  air,  we  may  become 
aware  of  it  and  shelter  in  Jesus.  One  of  the 
gifts  of  the  Spirit  is  to  make  us  quick  of  scent 
in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  quick  to  detect  the 
proximity  of  all  that  is  inconsistent  with  the 
fear  of  God  (Isa.  xi.  3,  marg.). 

Let  us  ask  for  this  sensitiveness  ;  it  will  en- 
able us  to  keep  out  of  the  way  of  temptation. 
With  a  shudder  we  shall  escape,  as  Joseph 
did,  from  the  room  where  the  pestilence  may 
lurk  beneath  silks  or  satins  and  the  fragrance 
of  eau  de  Cologne. 

The  Sense  of  Hearing.— Solomon  asked 
for  an  understanding  (literally,  a  hearing) 
heart.  Every  musician  knows  the  impor- 
tance of  a  good  ear.  However  fine  the  qual- 
ity or  strong  the  power  of  a  voice,  if  the  ear 
fails  to  detect  the  slightest  dissonance  with 


104  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

the  pitch  of  the  instrument,  excellence  as  a 
singer  is  unattainable.     To  sing  flat  is  bad 
enough,  but  to  sing  flat  and  not  know  it  is 
unpardonable.     You  can  do  nothing  with  the 
unsensitive  ear.     On  the  other  hand,  you  may- 
train  the  ear  to  almost  any  degree  of  delicacy, 
so  that  it  can  appreciate  shades  of  tone  which 
are  undiscoverable  by  ordinary  listeners. 
-    Do  you  not  think  that  sins  against  charity 
/  committed  by  the  tongue  are  due  to  a  want 
i   of  education  and  refinement  in  the  ear  of  the 
\  soul?     That  singer  would  not  sing  flat  if  her 
1  ear  were  trained  and  quick.     No,  and  that 
\  Christian  would  not  be  able  to  pass  on  those 
f  questionable  stories,  or  retail  those  unkind 
i  statements,  if  his  ear  were  trained  to  the  cords 
\  of  the  heart  of  God. 

V.  We  have  met  men  to  whom  a  discord  was 
perfect  agony.  They  have  risen  up  and  fled 
from  a  singer  who  was  habitually  out  of  tune. 
It  is  not  so  often  that  we  meet  men  fleeing 
from  speech  which  fell  out  with  the  deep 
music  of  heaven ;  but  there  are  such.  A 
little  while  ago,  at  Mr.  Moody's  table,  I  heard 
him  interpose  when  one,  in  the  course  of  con- 
versation, in  speaking  of  another,  was  a  little 
below  concert  pitch.  Oh  that  by  reason  of 
use  we  could  exercise  this  sense! 

The  Sense  of  Sight. — The  apostle  com- 
plains of  people  who  were  near-sighted  and 
could  not  see  afar  off.     It  is  a  terrible  affile- 


USE    YOUR  SENSES  105 

tion.  Hagar's  tears  made  her  short-sighted, 
and  she  saw  not  the  fountain  of  water. 
Ehsha's  servant  was  too  near-sighted  to  see 
the  horses  and  chariots  of  fire  around  him. 
Demas  was  too  Wind  to  look  beyond  the 
present  evil  world,  and  failed  to  see  the  un- 
seen and  eternal  things  that  filled  the  vision 
of  Paul. 

But  short-sightedness  is  not  the  main 
disease  of  the  eyes.  The  Lord  says  that  we 
may  see  double,  as  though  we  suffered  from 
a  squint.  It  is  said  that  Edward  Irving 
suffered  from  a  squint  which  spoiled  the  front 
view  of  his  face  because  as  a  baby  he  slept 
in  a  cot  which  had  a  large  hole  in  its  side, 
and  he  contracted  the  habit  of  looking 
through  it  as  he  lay.  Whether  that  be  so 
or  not,  there  are  plenty  of  professing  Chris- 
tians whose  eyes  do  not  move  on  the  same 
axis ;  one  is  directed  to  heaven,  the  other  to 
earth— one  to  God,  the  other  to  man.  Such 
may  well  stumble  in  the  noonday. 

All  along  the  path  of  hfe  are  stumbling- 
blocks  and  pitfalls  which  at  any  moment  may 
involve  us  in  terrible  falls.  Near-sightedness 
or  obliqueness  of  vision  is  alike  to  be  dreaded. 
Only  when  the  eye  is  single  can  the  whole 
body  be  full  of  light.  But  when  "  the  Hght 
that  is  in  thee  is  darkness,  how  great  is  the 
darkness!"  And  "he  that  walketh  in  dark- 
ness knoweth  not  whither  he  goeth."     How 


106  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

eagerly  do  we  need  that  Jesus  should  lay  His 
hands  on  our  eyes,  that  we  may  see  all  things 
clearly ! 

The  Sense  of  Taste.— This  too  is  a  mar- 
velous preservative  of  health  and  life.  We 
can  tell  almost  invariably  what  is  good  for 
food  by  the  taste.  Rotten  fruit,  diseased 
meat,  uncanny  tinned  oysters,  are  immedi- 
ately rejected  by  the  palate  as  unfit  to  go 
farther  into  the  body.  It  would  seem  as 
though  a  janitor  sat  at  the  gate  of  the  diges- 
tive organs,  carefully  testing  every  substance 
as  it  passed,  admitting  or  rejecting.  We 
know  well  enough  when  food  will  nourish  us. 

So  the  soul  has  taste.  Instantly  it  can 
distinguish  wholesome  from  unwholesome 
words.  It  recognizes  the  Bible  as  being 
good  and  healthful  food,  sweeter  than  honey 
and  the  honeycomb.  It  detects  the  flavor 
of  deity  in  the  Bible,  and  this  is  the  best 
proof  of  its  inspiration.  You  may  not  be 
able  to  argue  or  define  it,  but  you  are  aware 
of  its  presence  in  the  Bible  as  nowhere  else. 

And  whenever  you  are  conscious  that  a 
story-book  or  a  newspaper  paragraph  or  a 
conversation  is  unwholesome,  be  sure  to 
eject  it  as  suddenly  and  forcibly  as  you  may. 
Exercise  this  sense. 

The  Sense  of  Touch.— Be  very  sensitive 
to  the  touch  of  Jesus.  Very  often  He  gives 
a  touch,  light  as  a  feather,  which  is  the  signal 


USE    YOUR  SENSES  107 

that  danger  is  near.  Be  warned  by  it.  Har- 
den not  your  heart. 

Be  equally  sensitive  to  the  touch  of  the 
weary  and  heavy-laden.  They  will  come 
near  you  in  the  throng  and  press  of  life. 
Be  on  the  alert  for  such,  and  stay  to  ask,  as 
Jesus  did,  "  Who  touched  Me?  "  Like  Him, 
we  should  be  easily  touched  by  the  feehng 
of  men's  infirmities. 

But  all  these  senses,  like  those  of  the  body, 
will  grow  with  use,  becoming  daily  more 
deHcate  and  sensitive,  discerning  between 
good  and  evil  and  causing  us  to  develop 
from  babyhood  into  maturity. 


XVII 
THE  LIGHT  OF  THAT  DAY 

"  When  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  fully  come." — 
Acts  ii.  i. 

If  the  story  of  Acts  i.  and  ii.  had  been 
dropped  out  of  the  earliest  manuscripts,  and 
the  book  had  begun  with  chapter  iii.,  we 
should  have  been  compelled  to  beheve  that 
some  event  of  unparalleled  interest  and  im- 
portance had  occun*ed  to  account  for  the  as- 
tounding alteration  in  Peter  and  the  rest  of 
the  apostles  from  what  we  had  seen  them  to 
be  during  the  closing  days  of  Christ's  minis- 
try and  to  the  very  slopes  of  the  Ascension 
Mount. 

You  cannot  have  an  effect  without  a  cause, 
and  without  an  adequate  cause.  If  at  one 
moment  you  see  a  train  of  carriages  standing 
quietly  on  the  rails,  and  in  five  minutes  after 
you  see  them  moving  rapidly,  you  instantly 
infer  the  existence  of  a  power,  which  was 
formerly  quiescent,  in  active  operation.  So 
the  contrast  between  Luke  xxiv.  and  Acts  iii. 
108 


THE  LIGHT  OF  THA T  DAY       109 

demands  such  an  explanation  as  is  given  us 
in  Acts  i.  and  ii.  Let  the  mind  of  a  thought- 
ful man  be  confronted  with  the  church  and 
account  to  us  for  the  marvelous  momentum 
she  received  at  the  time  of  Christ's  ascension, 
and  let  it  find  a  more  adequate  explanation, 
if  it  can,  than  that  which  is  given  in  the  story 
of  the  advent  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  the  little 
assembly  in  the  upper  room. 

In  Luke  the  disciples  were  too  slow  of 
heart  to  understand  the  Scriptures;  in  the 
earlier  chapters  of  the  Acts  we  are  amazed 
at  the  multitude  and  variety  of  Scripture 
quotations  and  the  unerring  accuracy  with 
which  they  are  applied. 

In  Luke  they  tremble  and  flee  before  their 
Master's  captors,  and  Peter  especially  plays 
the  part  of  coward ;  but,  behold,  they  stand 
firm  as  rocks  and  charge  their  judges  with  the 
murder  of  the  Messiah. 

In  Luke  they  have  bitter  sorrow,  half- 
hearted enthusiasm,  little  power  with  God  or 
man ;  but  in  the  Acts  we  read  :  "  The  multi- 
tude of  them  that  believed  were  of  one  heart 
and  soul.  .  .  .  And  with  great  power  gave 
the  apostles  witness  of  the  resurrection  of 
the  Lord  Jesus :  and  great  grace  was  upon 
them  all. " 

If  only  you  would  claim  your  share  in  the 
blessings  which  the  day  of  Pentecost  brought 
to  them  that  were  afar  off  (Gentiles)  as  well 


110  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

as  to  them  that  were  near  (Jews),  and  to  all 
whom  the  Lord  our  God  should  call  unto 
Him, — blessings  which  are  as  unexhausted 
as  though  none  had  ever  made  use  of  them, 
blessings  which  can  be  had  from  the  Saviour 
on  the  one  single  condition  of  accepting  and 
using  them, — there  would  be  for  you  also  an 
immediate  entrance  on  the  enjoyment  of 
those  same  privileges  which  fell  to  the  share 
of  the  first  disciples.  Let  us  enumerate  those 
priceless  gains : 

Insight  into  Scripture.  Words  spoken  by 
the  prophets,  psalms  written  by  the  sweet 
singer,  events  in  the  story  of  the  exodus,  will 
flash  with  new  meaning.  The  light  of  that 
day  shall  illumine  many  a  dark  chamber  and 
intricate  passage  in  the  palace  of  Scripture. 
When  the  Spirit  who  spake  in  kings  and 
prophets  speaks  within  us,  things  which  were 
hidden  from  the  wise  and  prudent  stand  re- 
vealed to  babes.  Dark  masses  of  truth, 
touched  by  the  heavenly  fire,  yield  back  the 
hght  they  caught  ages  ago  from  the  face  of 
God.  The  heart  is  open  to  understand  the 
Scriptures  ;  the  eyes  see  with  a  divine  insight. 
Old  chapters  seen  in  the  fresh  Hght  assume 
new  interest,  trivial  incidents  a  new  impor- 
tance, historical  events  a  deeper  meaning. 
The  Holy  Spirit,  like  a  good  householder, 
brings  from  the  storehouse  of  Scripture  things 
new  and  old.     As  He  speaks  with  us  our 


THE  LIGHT  OF   THA T  DAY       111 

hearts  burn,  and,  to  our  surprise,  we  find  the 
miracle  of  the  transfiguration  repeated  and 
the  common  texture  of  Holy  Writ  is  radiant 
with  the  glory  of  God. 

Great  bold?iess  of  utterance.  A  little  while 
ago  you  trembled  like  an  aspen-leaf  before 
the  question  of  a  maid,  but  when  that  day 
breaks  you  stand  like  a  lion  and  are  able  to 
charge  men  with  their  sin— no  hesitancy  in 
speech,  no  cringing  in  demeanor,  no  quailing 
of  the  fearless  eye.  "  Him,  being  dehvered 
by  the  determinate  wisdom  and  foreknow- 
ledge of  God,  ye  have  taken,  and  by  wicked 
hands  did  crucify  and  slay  " — such  is  our 
challenge.  "  Him  hath  God  exalted  by  His 
right  hand  to  be  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour"  — 
such  our  unhesitating  announcement. 

Have  you  reached  this  stage  of  holy  bold- 
ness, so  that  at  your  rebuke  the  wicked  man 
is  arrested,  the  attention  of  the  careless  com- 
pelled, and  the  ungodly  pricked  to  the  heart? 
Then  be  sure  that  that  day  has  broken.  If 
it  be  otherwise  your  day  of  Pentecost  has  not 
fully  come. 

Much  joy.  You  may  have  lost  the  sensible 
presence  of  your  dearest  friend.  Only  ten 
days  ago  you  may  have  seen  him  ascend  to 
God;  you  may  have  returned  to  an  upper 
room,  every  timber  in  which  recalls  the  pres- 
ence which  has  been  withdrawn ;  but  when 
that  day  has  fully  come  you  will  be  filled 


112  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

with  such  ecstasy  of  love  and  joy  and  hope 
as  to  excite  wonder  in  bystanders.  It  will  be 
exhilaration  like  that  of  a  man  filled  with  new 
wine.  You  will  take  your  food  with  gladness 
and  singleness  of  heart,  praising  God ;  you 
will  speak  in  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual 
songs,  singing  and  making  melody  with  your 
heart  to  the  Lord,  giving  thanks  always  for 
all  things,  in  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  to  God,  even  the  Father. 

Burning  love.  Recently  I  stood  by  the 
mouth  of  a  furnace  of  molten  metal  prepared 
for  pouring  into  the  mold  of  a  large  cylinder. 
What  a  contrast  between  the  hquid  metal, 
that  dazzled  and  turned  away  the  gaze,  and 
the  dark  sand  of  the  mold!  But  presently 
the  sluice-gate  was  opened  and  the  stream  of 
fire  began  to  pour  into  its  prepared  bed,  and 
speedily  every  corner  and  cranny  far  beneath 
my  feet  had  received  its  infiUing.  And  as  I 
stood  above  it  I  loved  to  think  of  that  mold 
of  fire.  This  is  Pentecost!  For  years  Jesus 
had  been  making  the  mold  in  the  hearts  of 
the  disciples,  but  when  He  left  them  it  was 
little  more  than  an  empty  void — capacious, 
hungry,  but  empty.  AVhen  the  day  of  Pen- 
tecost came  He  drew  back  the  sluice-gates, 
and  the  Holy  Spirit,  like  the  liquid  fire  of  the 
metal,  poured  into  hearts  and  lives  which 
were  prepared  and  eager. 

What  that  day  was  to  the  disciples  it  is  to 


THE  LIGHT  OF  THAT  DAY       113 

every  one.  Before  there  may  be  orthodoxy 
of  creed,  punctilious  regularity  in  the  perform- 
ance of  religious  duty,  correctness  in  behavior 
and  speech,  but  that  is  all.  Wait  till  that 
day  breaks,  and  that  God,  who  is  fire  and 
strength  and  purity  and,  above  all,  love,  fills 
heart  and  life.  Then  the  love  of  God  is 
shed  abroad  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  the  love 
wherewith  the  Father  loved  the  Son  is  in 
us,  and  He  is  in  us,  according  to  His  high- 
priestly  prayer. 

Power  with  God  and  man.  See  those 
crowds  swaying  beneath  Peter's  simple 
words!  You  cannot  account  for  the  effect 
by  what  he  said.  Half  his  address  was  quo- 
tation. He  told  the  story  of  Calvary,  which 
they  knew,  and  of  the  resurrection,  which 
was  startling  and  strange.  He  dilated  on 
the  ascension  and  his  Master's  reception  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  There  was  nothing  in  what 
he  said  to  account  for  the  marvelous  result 
of  three  thousand  being  added  to  the  Lord. 
The  only  explanation  of  the  marvel  was  that 
he  had  been  with  God,  that  the  day  of  Pen- 
tecost had  fully  come,  and  that  the  power  of 
God  Himself  was  pouring  through  the  open 
flood-gates  of  his  soul.  Such  power  is  within 
your  reach  if  you  would  only  go  forth  and 
stand  in  the  meridian  light  of  the  day  of 
Pentecost. 

Of  that  day  Christ  is  the  day-star.     The 


114  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

Latins  called  the  morning  star  Lucifer,  be- 
cause it  seemed  to  bring  the  day.  Jesus  is 
the  bright  and  morning  star ;  He  has  received 
the  Holy  Spirit  from  the  Father,  that  He  may 
communicate  Him  to  all  who  are  united  with 
Him  by  a  living  faith.  Deal  with  Him ;  ask 
Him  to  shed  this  blessed  gift  upon  you ;  re- 
ceive it  by  faith  and  reckon  that  it  is  yours ; 
be  sure  that  the  day  has  broken,  even  though 
you  have  detected  no  footfall  of  its  stealthy 
entrance.  You  undoubtedly  received  the 
Spirit  at  regeneration,  else  you  had  not  been 
able  to  call  Christ  "  Lord " ;  but  there  is 
something  more  to  be  had,  as  much  better 
than  this  as  sunlight  is  than  starlight— the 
full  coming  of  the  day  of  Pentecost. 


XVIII 
THE    SECRET    OF    CONTINUANCE 

■''  Daniel  continued."— Dan.  i.  21. 

The  closing  words  of  the  first  chapter  of 
the  Book  of  Daniel  are  very  significant.  We 
are  told  that  "  Daniel  contmued^v^n  unto  the 
first  year  of  Cyrus."  If  he  were  about  four- 
teen years  of  age  at  the  time  of  his  transpor- 
tation this  would  mean  that  for  seventy 
additional  years  he  continued  to  practise 
those  habits  of  self-control  and  abstinence 
which  he  had  commenced  in  his  youth. 
"  Simple  words,  but  what  a  volume  of  tried 
faithfulness  is  involved  by  them!  Amid  all 
the  intrigues  indigenous  at  all  times  to  dynas- 
ties of  Oriental  despotism  ;  amid  all  the  envy 
toward  a  foreign  captive  in  high  office  as  a 
king's  counselor;  amid  all  the  trouble  in- 
cidental to  the  insanity  of  the  king  and  the 
murder  of  two  of  his  successors— in  that 
whole  critical  period  for  his  people  Daniel 
continued^ 

Not  unfrequently  young  souls  are  deterred 
115 


116  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

from  confessing  Christ,  or  assuming  some 
pledge  of  lofty  endeavor  and  entire  sur- 
render, for  fear  that  they  may  prove  rec- 
reant to  their  high  resolve.  This  may  seem 
to  betoken  modesty  of  disposition  and  a  low 
self-estimate ;  but  much  more  certainly  it  be- 
tokens mistrust  of  God  and  unworthy  concep- 
tions of  His  love  and  power — as  though  it 
were  possible  for  Him  to  excite  yearnings  and 
aspirations  which  He  could  not  satisfy,  or  be- 
gin a  work  which  He  was  unable  to  perfect! 
Our  duty  and  privilege  is  to  obey,  and  to 
step  out  into  the  unknown  believing  that  He 
who  gave  the  command  will  supply  all  needed 
grace  for  its  execution,  and  will  never  suffer 
the  righteous  to  be  ashamed. 

Our  sources  of  continuance  are  furnished 
by  the  offices  of  the  distinct  persons  of  the 
blessed  Trinity. 

Firsts  in  the  purpose  of  the  Father.  There 
are  hours  in  Hfe  when  it  is  of  the  greatest 
possible  comfort  to  get  down  to  the  bed-rock 
of  His  electing  grace.  This  doctrine  ought 
not  to  be  presented  to  the  inquirer,  for,  what- 
ever it  may  mean,  it  contains  nothing  to  dis- 
courage the  free  access  of  any  and  every  one 
to  God.  He  has  not  spoken  in  secret  and 
said  of  any  seeking  soul,  "  Seek  ye  My  face 
in  vain."  Nay,  for  all  the  world  the  door  of 
mercy  stands  open,  and  over  it  this  legend  is 
inscribed :  "  Whosoever  will,  let  him  enter. 


THE  SECRET  OF  CONTINUANCE    117 

.  .  .  Him  that  cometh  to  Me  I  will  in  no 
wise  cast  out."  It  is  only  when  we  have  en- 
tered that  ever-open  door  that  we  are  con- 
fronted with  another  legend,  inscribed  in  gold 
and  set  around  the  room :  "  In  whom  also 
we  were  made  a  heritage,  having  been  fore- 
ordained according  to  the  purpose  of  Him 
who  worketh  all  things  after  the  counsel  of 
His  own  will."  In  other  words,  the  comfort 
and  meaning  of  God's  electing  purpose  is  not 
for  those  who  are  without,  but  for  such  as  are 
within,  God's  home. 

There  is  a  verse  which  casts  a  little  light 
into  the  mysterious  depths  of  this  truth — not 
very  far,  but  for  some  few  feet :  that  from 
which  we  learn  that  whom  God  did  foreknow 
He  also  did  predestinate;  as  though  His 
divine  wisdom  forecasted  those  who  should 
become  one  with  Jesus  by  a  living  faith,  and 
His  divine  purpose  included  them  in  its  un- 
changing determinations. 

D  o  you  not  feel  the  force  of  these  thoughts? 
Do  you  not  see  their  immense  reassurance? 
Is  it  not  a  comfort,  when  the  hatred  of  Satan 
is  hke  a  pitiless  hail-storm  in  your  face,  to  be- 
lieve that  the  love  of  God  will  never  let  you 
go?  Is  it  not  inspiring  and  helpful  to  real- 
ize, when  you  are  most  inclined  to  despond, 
that  there  is  no  fickleness,  vacillation,  or 
changefulness  in  the  divine  heart?  He 
knew  all  we  should  be  before  He  loved  us. 


118  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

He  knew  all  the  difficulties  of  making  us 
saints  before  He  excavated  us  from  nature's 
quarry.  We  did  not  choose  Him,  but  He 
us.  We  did  not  first  love  Him,  but  He  us. 
However  strong  the  gale  may  be  against  us, 
our  keel  is  in  the  strong  current  of  His  will, 
and  this  will  master  that.  "  My  sheep  shall 
never  perish,  neither  shall  any  pluck  them  out 
of  My  hand.  My  Father,  which  gave  them 
Me,  is  greater  than  all ;  and  none  shall  pluck 
them  out  of  My  Father's  hand." 

JVext,  there  is  the  constant  supply  of  grace 
from  the  Saviour.  The  prophet  saw  in  vision 
that  the  bowl  of  the  temple  candlestick  was 
fed  with  golden  oil  from  the  heart  of  two 
olive-trees.  These  symbolize  the  king  and 
priest  sides  of  Christ's  nature,  and  teach  us 
that  the  oil  of  the  divine  grace  is  constantly 
ministered  to  us  from  his  heart,  and  as  long 
as  that  continues  we  shall  continue.  Because 
Jesus  lives  we  shall  hve  also. 

This  makes  the  difference  between  the  old 
covenant  and  the  new.  God  sorrowfully 
laments  that  His  people  continued  not  in 
His  covenant;  and  then  our  attention  is 
directed  from  the  priests  of  the  old  cove- 
nant, who  were  not  suffered  to  continue  by 
reason  of  death,  to  Him  who,  because  He 
continueth  ever,  hath  an  unchangeable  priest- 
hood and  is  able  to  save  unto  the  uttermost 
all  that  come  unto  God  by  Him,  seeing  that 


THE  SECRET  OF  CONTINUANCE   119 

He  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  them 
(Heb.  vii.  24,  25  ;  viii.  9).  Your  continuance 
and  mine  depend  on  the  continuance  of  Jesus 
as  our  minister  and  mediator  before  the  throne 
of  God. 

The  other  night  I  fell  into  converse  with 
the  wick  of  my  oil  lamp,  that  for  many  weeks 
has  ministered  light  to  me.  Some  grateful 
acknowledgment  was  made  for  silent,  regu- 
lar, and  unobtrusive  service,  and  then  the 
question  came  whether  it  did  not  shrink  from 
the  inevitable  demands  of  the  long  winter 
nights.  I  could  see  in  the  glass  oil  cistern  in 
which  the  wick  lay  coiled  together  that  there 
was  a  considerable  length  yet  to  run,  and  I 
knew  that  the  scissors  cut  off  each  morning 
a  very  inconsiderable  piece  of  char,  and  I 
said: 

"  In  view  of  the  great  and  inevitable  de- 
mands of  the  future,  does  not  your  heart  mis- 
give you?  How  will  you  be  able  to  last  out, 
how  continue  to  supply  light  for  my  page?  " 

And  for  my  reply  I  got  the  following :  "  I 
do  not  produce  the  light ;  I  only  supply  the 
edge  or  fringe  on  which  the  oil  bums.  From 
the  cistern  yonder  it  climbs  up  by  me,  as  by 
a  ladder,  and  burns  on  my  extremity  to  give 
light  to  all  that  are  in  the  house.  As  long  as 
the  oil  is  supplied,  so  that  there  is  no  lack, 
and  as  long  as  the  charred  edge  is  removed, 
so  that  there  is  nothing  to  choke  the  access  of 


120  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

the  oil  to  the  flame,  I  most  certainly  shall 
continue." 

Similarly,  our  continuance  depends  on  the 
unceasing  thought  and  care  of  Jesus.  He 
walks  amid  the  seven  golden  candlesticks. 
Whenever  there  is  need  for  the  golden  snuff- 
ers He  does  not  hesitate  to  use  them,  and 
while  He  Hves  there  is  no  fear  of  failure  in 
the  holy  oil.  Out  of  His  heart  it  ever  pours 
to  every  believer,  just  as  the  oxygenated 
blood  is  poured  forth  throughout  the  entire 
body  and  to  every  part. 

The  mill-wheel  never  dreams  of  turning 
itself,  and  never  anticipates  ceasing  in  its  use- 
ful ministry,  because  the  stream  is  ever  flow- 
ing beneath,  and  the  miller  lives  at  hand  to 
obviate  any,  even  the  sHghtest,  symptom  of 
failure. 

Lastly,  there  is  the  perpetual  indwelling  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  He  does  not  say  yea  and 
nay — one  thing  to-day  and  another  to-mor- 
row. The  life  He  communicates  is  everlast- 
ing, since  it  is  eternal;  and  it  is  eternal 
because  He  gives  Himself  as  the  eternal 
Spirit.  The  eternal  is  not  subject  to  decay 
or  change  or  evanescence.  It  persists.  Our 
hope  cannot  make  us  ashamed,  because  the 
love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  our  heart ;  and 
what  is  this  but  the  Shechinah,  the  nature  of 
the  "  I  AM,"  who  was  manifested  in  the  bush 
that  burned  with  fire,  the  tender  branchlets 


THE  SECRET  OF  CONTINUANCE   121 

of  which  were  not  consumed  because  they 
were  not  required  to  yield  fuel  to  the  flame! 
Rejoice,  O  trembling  heart!  The  Holy 
Spirit  has  come  to  indwell  thee,  and  He  will 
not  leave  His  residence.  He  has  chosen 
thee  as  His  temple,  and  He  will  not  be 
driven  forth.  He  has  given  thee  ghmpses, 
yeanlings,  first-fruits,  which  are  the  earnest 
of  an  inheritance  that  He  cannot  do  other- 
wise than  grant.  He  has  begun  a  good 
work,  and  will  carry  it  on  to  the  day  of 
Jesus  Christ.  There  are  no  unfinished  pic- 
tures in  His  gallery,  no  unperfected  blocks 
in  His  studio.  "  The  work  which  His  grace 
has  begun  the  arm  of  His  strength  will 
complete." 


XIX 
ONE    OF   GOD'S   "NOES" 

"  I  had  in  mine  heart  to  build  a  house. "  —  i  Chron. 
XXVIII.  2,  3. 

"  As  for  me,  I  had  in  mine  heart  to  build 
a  house  of  rest  for  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of 
the  Lord."  Thus  spake  the  aged  king,  and 
it  was  a  true  record.  For  scarcely  had  the 
outbursts  of  loyalty  which  greeted  him  to  the 
throne  died  away  than  he  began  to  plan  for 
the  building  of  a  house  which  should  be 
more  worthy  of  the  God  he  loved  than  the 
faded  curtains  of  the  tabernacle,  stained  with 
the  travel  and  wear  of  centuries.  Was  not 
this  very  remarkable?  He  had  spent  his  life 
among  wild  outlaws,  roughing  it  on  the  hills 
and  in  caves,  familiar  with  war  and  bloodshed, 
and  with  fierce  men  as  his  comrades.  He 
had  shed  much  blood,  and  one  would  not 
have  expected  him  to  be  so  sensitive  to  the 
impulse  of  a  noble  purpose,  or  that  his  soul 
would  have  been  kept  so  full  of  sweetness, 
only  awaiting  a  fitting  occasion  for  its  expres- 
122 


ONE   OF  GOD'S  ''NOES''  123 

sion.  Yet  there  it  was.  Though  he  was  kept 
so  long  at  rough,  distasteful  work,  he  never 
lost  this  tender,  holy  longing  to  build  a  house 
of  rest.  And  ere  he  died  he  took  forth  once 
more  the  ideal  of  his  life,  and  looked  at  it 
wistfully  for  the  last  time  ere  he  laid  it  aside 
forever. 

So  it  is  still.  Many  around  us  who  are 
doing  rough  and  uncongenial  work  carry 
within  them  a  fair  ideal  of  some  great  and 
lovely  thing  which  they  would  fain  achieve. 
Some  dream  of  music  fills  the  chambers  of 
harmony.  Some  vision  of  golden  glory  is 
painted  with  rich,  prismatic  colors  on  the 
windows  of  the  soul.  Some  scheme  of  far- 
reaching  benevolence  and  consecrated  service 
exercises  the  sleeping  and  waking  thoughts 
and  keeps  the  fountains  of  the  heart  always 
pure. 

They  will  yet  be  missionaries.  They  will 
stir  men  to  noble  ideals.  They  will  build 
houses  of  rest  for  the  weary  and  heavy  laden. 
They  will  start  fountains  flowing  which  shall 
carry  refreshment  far  down  into  the  valleys 
where  the  toiling  myriads  stifle.  And  as 
God  looks  down  on  them  He  says  with  a 
smile,  "  It  is  well  that  this  is  in  thine  heart." 
It  is  well  to  have  such  heavenly  occupants 
— well  because  when  the  heart  is  occupied 
thus  worse  things  are  compelled  to  wait  with- 
out;  well  because  the  pure  in  heart  are 


124  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

blessed ;  well  because  a  noble  purpose  is  the 
parent,  here  and  hereafter,  of  a  noble  progeny 
(i  Kings  viii.  i8). 

At  first  when  Nathan  heard  the  royal  sug- 
gestion he  welcomed  it  as  the  best  thing  pos- 
sible. Neither  he  nor  David  dreamed  for  a 
moment  that  God  would  say  **  No."  Yet  so 
it  was.  We  cannot  judge  God's  way  for  one 
another.  Like  Peter  and  John,  we  must 
learn  to  say,  "  Lord,  and  what  shall  this  man 
do?  "  Because  things  which  have  seemed  the 
best  course  possible  to  our  poor  human  judg- 
ment are  put  aside  by  the  wise  love  of  God. 
In  the  morning  the  prophet  had  to  seek  his 
lord  and  tell  him  as  gently  as  possible  that  it 
could  not  be. 

God  spoke  His  "  No  "  very  gently.  Indeed, 
it  was  so  wrapped  up  in  promises  of  the  coming 
child  that  the  "  No  "  was  rather  breathed  than 
spoken,  rather  felt  than  heard.  God  always 
says  "  No "  thus,  so  as  not  to  break  the 
bruised  reed  nor  quench  the  smoking  flax, 
so  as  not  to  break  the  heart  of  the  most 
timid.  If  He  is  not  able  to  remove  the 
thorn  in  the  flesh  He  says,  "  My  grace  is 
sufficient,"  and  we  are  left  to  infer  that  our 
request  cannot  be  granted. 

God  did  7iot  at  first  give  any  reason.  Only 
after  the  lapse  of  years  was  the  real  reason 
borne  in  upon  the  spirit  of  the  king,  and  he 
was  taught  that  his  disappointment  was  not 


ONE   OF  GOD'S  "NOES''  125 

due  to  arbitrary  caprice,  but  because  there 
was  an  incongruity  between  his  project  and 
his  previous  wars.  God  does  not  give  His 
reasons  at  the  time.  He  says,  "  Wait,  My 
child,  and  trust  Me ;  what  thou  knowest  not 
now  thou  shalt  know  hereafter.  I  will  tell 
thee  My  reason  by  and  by."  Then,  after  the 
years  have  passed,  the  true  reason  is  sug- 
gested by  a  word,  a  circumstance,  an  impres- 
sion, a  flash  of  inspiration. 

God  sweetly  wove  His  commendation  with 
His  "  Noy  How  grateful  it  must  have  been 
to  David  to  hear  God  review  his  life -purpose 
and  say  that  it  was  well  conceived !  Those 
words  must  have  often  recurred  to  him  and 
been  as  the  tree  that  sweetened  the  bitter 
waters  of  the  brackish  desert  pools.  All 
through  hfe  God  may  hinder  us  from  exe- 
cuting the  one  purpose  on  which  our  hearts 
were  set.  There  are  the  demands  of  home 
and  dear  ones,  the  limitation  of  our  ability, 
the  shackling  fetters  of  circumstances.  But 
at  the  close  and  end  of  all  He  will  let  us 
know  that  He  detected  our  high  purpose  and 
was  satisfied.  The  woman  who  welcomed 
the  prophet  for  his  Master's  sake  shall  have 
an  identical  reward  with  his.  Will  it  not 
repay  us  for  years  of  deferred  hope  and  de- 
layed achievement  when  God  says  to  us,  "  I 
saw  it  all ;  not  one  pang  of  pain  or  throb  of 
desire  was  unrecognized  or  unappreciated; 


126  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

I  am  pleased  and  satisfied;  enter  into  My 
joy"? 

Though  God  said  "  No  "  in  one  form,  yet 
He  fulfilled  David' s  purpose  in  its  noblest  in- 
tention. The  house  was  built  mainly  through 
David's  means,  his  influence  and  provision 
and  prayers.  As  the  noble  temple  stood 
complete  and  radiant  in  the  sunlight  David's 
name  passed  from  lip  to  lip ;  he  was  remem- 
bered, and  all  his  afflictions.  It  was  recorded 
how  he  sware  to  the  Lord,  and  vowed  to  the 
mighty  God  of  Jacob,  that  he  would  not  give 
sleep  to  his  eyes,  nor  slumber  to  his  eyelids, 
till  he  had  found  a  place  for  the  Lord,  an 
habitation  for  the  mighty  God  of  Jacob. 
And  as  David  looked  down  from  heaven  he 
was  content.  Is  your  Hfe-purpose  balked 
and  thwarted  ?  Do  your  cherished  plans 
miscarry?  This  were  an  insoluble  problem 
if  we  did  not  believe  that  there  is  a  world 
where  the  broken  purposes  of  earth  are  real- 
ized on  a  wider  and  better  scale  than  we  once 
dared  to  hope. 

And  how  patiently  David  bore  himself 
under  this  rebuff!  He  was  an  Eastern 
tyrant,  accustomed  to  be  instantly  obeyed; 
but  he  bore  the  frustrating  of  his  life's  pur- 
pose gently  and  submissively  as  a  child.  He 
did  not  turn  his  face  to  the  wall  in  a  pet.  He 
did  not  sulk.  He  did  not  throw  down  his 
tools  and  refuse  to  do  anything  because  he 


ONE   OF  GOD'S  "NOES''  127 

could  not  do  the  thing  that  he  hked  best. 
He  said  in  effect,  "  It  is  the  Lord ;  let  Him 
do  what  seemeth  Him  good."  And  then  he 
quietly  set  to  work  to  do  the  next  best  thing 
in  accumulating  the  ample  stores  which 
Solomon  found  ready  to  his  hand  and  which 
made  his  work  comparatively  hght. 

This  patience  is  one  of  the  rarest  virtues.  "*■ 
We  are  so  apt  to  fret  and  fume  and  strike 
work  if  God  crosses  our  plans  or  seems  to 
deny  our  request.  Would  that  we  could  take  ; 
God's  lessons  with  loving  fortitude!  Would  I 
that  we  could  suit  ourselves  to  His  mold  of  | 
circumstances !  Would  that  we  could  accept  1 
the  inferior  work  if  we  may  not  take  the  ] 
higher ! 

"  Content  to  fill  a  little  space, 
If  He  be  glorified." 

Some  may  be  suffering  now  from  the  al- 
most stunning  blow  of  one  of  God's  "  Noes." 
It  seems  just  now  as  though  life  were  impos- 
sible and  death  a  sweet  release.  Be  strong, 
O  heart,  to  suffer  and  wait!  Begin  to  do 
some  other  work  for  God.  The  load  may 
seem  heavy  at  the  outset,  but  it  will  become 
hghter  at  every  step,  and  ere  long  the  uncon- 
genial road  will  open  into  unimagined  beauties. 

Yes,  compensations  will  come — in  having 
vindicated  God's  character,  in  being  owned 
His  child,  and  in  hearing  Him  say,  "  Thou 
didst  well  in  that  it  was  in  thine  heart." 


128  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

We  know  not  what  we  are  doing.  When 
we  are  stopped  in  one  direction  we  are  gath- 
ering force  in  another.  Kingdoms  are  won 
by  waiting  as  well  as  by  fighting.  John 
speaks  of  "the  kingdom  and  patience  of 
Jesus." 


XX 

FORGETTING 

**  Forgetting  those  things  which  are  behind." — 
Phil.  hi.  13. 

There  are  some  things  which  we  must 
never  forget.  We  are  bidden  to  remember 
the  way  in  which  the  Lord  our  God  has  led 
us ;  the  wicket-gate  where  we  passed  from 
darkness  to  hght ;  the  cross  where  our  burden 
rolled  away ;  the  night  we  spent  in  the  House 
Beautiful.  But  He  who  bids  us  remember 
these  things  bids  us  forget  others.  We  are 
to  forget  the  things  that  are  behind,  and  reach 
forward  to  those  which  are  before,  and  so 
press  toward  the  goal. 

Very  solemnly,  in  the  midst  of  one  of  His 
discourses,  our  Lord  bade  His  hearers  remem- 
ber Lot's  wife.  And  why  should  they  have 
been  so  specially  exhorted  to  consider  that 
pillar  of  salt  standing  in  awful  desolation  on 
the  plain  of  the  Dead  Sea?  Why  not  think 
rather  of  Lot  escaping  in  mad  haste,  or  of 
the  angels  hastening  him,  or  of  the  doom  that 
129 


130  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

overtook  the  sinners  of  Sodom?  Ah,  there 
are  lessons  that  deserve  pondering  to  be 
learned  from  that  monmnent  of  basalt.  "  She 
looked  back  "—she  squandered  priceless  mo- 
ments, given  for  escape,  in  retrospect.  In- 
stead of  pressing  to  the  possibihties  of  a  better 
future,  she  lingered  regretfully  over  the  relics 
of  a  disgraceful  past.  She  is  forever  a  type 
and  a  warning  to  those  who  fail  to  forget  the 
things  that  are  behind. 

Forget  past  sins.  There  is  a  sense  in  which 
we  do  well  to  remember  the  past  misdoings 
of  our  lives— that  we  may  be  humbled  and 
warned ;  that  we  may  not  expose  ourselves 
to  temptations  which  have  shown  themselves 
too  strong  for  us ;  that  we  may  be  led  to  a 
more  careful  self-watch  and  more  entire  de- 
pendence upon  God.  But  we  ought  not  to 
dwell  upon  our  past  sins  as  though  they  were 
ever  present  to  the  eye  of  God  and  incapa- 
citated us  for  high  and  holy  service. 

What  would  Peter  have  done  on  the  day 
of  Pentecost  if  he  had  persisted  in  pensively 
dwelling  on  the  scenes  of  the  denial  and  had 
not  dared  to  beheve  that  all  was  forgiven  and 
forgotten?  What  would  have  been  the  effect 
on  the  great  apostle  if  he  had  allowed  the 
memory  of  his  share  in  the  harrying  of  the 
saints  to  overcast  his  spirit  when  summoned 
to  found  churches,  write  epistles,  and  traverse 
continents?     When  once  we  confess  it  our 


FORGETTING  131 

sin  is  immediately  and  forever  put  away. 
God  will  never  mention  it  again.  It  need 
not  be  a  barrier  on  our  service ;  it  should  not 
hinder  us  from  aspiring  to  and  enjoying  the 
most  intimate  fellowship  which  is  within  the 
reach  of  mortals.  Forget  the  past  sins  and 
failures  of  your  life  in  the  sense  of  brooding 
over  them  with  perpetual  lamentation. 

Forget  past  successes.  This  is  a  very  fruit- 
ful source  of  weakness.  We  are  apt  to  sup- 
pose that  we  have  reached  the  limit  of  our 
measure  on  some  august  occasion,  over  which 
we  ponder  with  much  self-congratulation. 
Thus  we  did  and  said  and  triumphed.  To- 
gether with  this,  and  following  it  swiftly,  as 
tears  do  laughter,  the  thought  flashes  across 
the  soul,  "  But  I  shall  never  do  as  well  again  ; 
my  sun  has  passed  its  meridian ;  my  hand  is 
losing  its  dexterity  and  cunning;  my  eye  is 
not  so  keen,  nor  my  foot  as  swift." 

This  will  never  do.  Such  thoughts  may 
hold  good  in  respect  of  the  force  of  the  mind 
and  the  muscle  of  the  arm,  but  not  of  the 
spirit,  which  has  the  element  of  immortality 
in  its  constitution  and  does  not  share  the  fail- 
ure of  nature.  "  Thy  sun  shall  no  more  go 
down,  nor  thy  moon  withdraw  herself"; 
"more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day"; 
"bearing  fruit  in  old  age"— such  are  the 
metaphors  of  Scripture.  Dare  to  believe 
that  there  are  greater  and  better  things  be- 


132  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

fore  than  behind,  that  there  are  mightier 
victories,  larger  spoils,  greater  accomplish- 
ments. It  would  be  a  hundred  pities  if  your 
memory  of  the  past  should  be  a  ring-fence 
and  stay  your  future  development.  Our 
future  is  not  to  be  measured  by  more  or  less 
of  natural  vigor  or  intellectual  faculty, — these 
may  wax  or  wane, — but  by  the  expansion  of 
our  spiritual  character,  the  increase  of  faith, 
hope,  and  love,  which  ever  abide,  the  capa- 
city of  our  spirits  to  take  in  more  and  more 
of  the  fullness  of  God. 

Forget  past  imiocence.  An  innocent  child 
is  an  engaging  sight— the  heart  not  polluted, 
the  eyes  not  blurred  with  passion,  the  breath 
pure  as  a  spring  morning,  the  body  a  meet 
shrine  for  holy  love.  We  contrast  such  with 
ourselves,  who  have  eaten  of  the  tree  of 
knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  and  sadly  say 
with  Hood: 

"  I  am  further  off  from  heaven  to-day  than  when  I  was 
a  boy." 

But  we  should  remember  that  purity,  which 
knows  evil  and  has  triumphed  over  it,  is  a 
greater  thing  than  innocence,  just  as  the  ship 
that  has  weathered  storm  and  battle  is  a 
nobler  object  than  the  gay  pleasure-boat  on 
the  eve  of  a  regatta.  To  know  sin  only  to 
hate  it,  to  know  it  and  to  shrink  from  it  as 
the  timid  gazelle  from  the  beast  of  prey,  to 


FORGETTING  133 

know  it  in  order  to  warn  others  against  it,  is 
to  resemble  the  Lamb  of  God,  who  was  holy, 
harmless,  undefiled,  and  separate  from  sin- 
ners. Do  not,  then,  mourn  over  the  tender 
grace  of  the  morning;  press  on  toward  the 
noon,  which,  notwithstanding  all  its  dust  and 
glare,  is  ripening  millions  of  ears  of  com. 
Only  be  sure  that  if  you  have  lost  your  inno- 
cence it  has  been  replaced  by  purity.  There 
are  so  many  who  have  neither  the  one  nor  the 
other.  But  purity  awaits  all  who  will  open 
their  hearts  to  receive  the  indwelling  grace 
and  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Forget  past  disappoint77ieJits .  Some  always 
bear  themselves  as  though  'they  would  say, 
"  I  am  one  who  has  seen  affliction ;  call  me 
not  Naomi,  but  call  me  Mara,  for  the  Lord 
hath  dealt  very  bitterly  with  me."  There  is 
a  pensive,  dejected  look,  as  though  God  had 
forgotten  to  be  gracious  and  had  shut  up 
His  mercy  forevermore.  This  does  not  com- 
mend our  God  to  others,  and  it  betrays  a 
wrong  state  of  things  in  ourselves.  God  can 
increase  our  capacity  as  the  years  go  by,  and 
our  success  does  not  depend  on  our  natural 
powers  or  capacities,  but  on  the  ever-growing 
fullness  of  power  and  grace  of  which  God  is 
the  fountain  and  character  the  recipient.  If 
a  father  chastens  a  child  we  do  not  expect  it 
to  wear  always  after  a  downcast  look.  If  it 
did  we  might  fear  that  it  had  not  forgiven  its 


134  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

parent  and  were  resenting  the  chastening  as 
a  personal  wrong.  The  stripes  should  be  ac- 
cepted and  pondered,  but  the  face  should  be 
lightened  again  with  the  assurance  of  the 
father's  forgiveness  and  perfect  trust  that  all 
was  lovingly  meant. 

So  with  ourselves.  We  may  be  as  yet  in 
young  life,  but  we  have  seen  sorrow ;  the 
shadow  has  passed  over  our  sun,  the  sirocco 
has  withered  the  green  oasis  on  which  we  had 
thought  to  settle  for  the  remainder  of  our 
days.  Be  it  so.  We  can  never  forget  the 
dear  one  taken  from  our  side.  But  beside 
the  cross  there  are  springs  of  joy ;  let  us  drink 
of  them.  Much  is  gone,  but,  thank  God, 
much  is  left.  Let  us  look  not  only  on  our 
losses,  but  on  our  possessions.  Let  us  lift  to 
Him  a  face  wet  with  tears,  perhaps,  yet  full 
of  love  and  trust,  until  He  shall  illumine  it 
with  the  hght  of  His  countenance. 


XXI 
STAY   WHERE   YOU   ARE 

"  Let  every  man  abide  in  the  same  calling  wherein 
he  was  called."— i  Cor.  vii.  20. 

When  the  apostle  wrote  his  first  epistle  to 
Corinth  the  church  there  was  full  of  unrest. 
The  inspiration  of  a  new  life  was  breathing 
through  the  world  hke  the  warm  breath  of 
spring  among  icebergs,  those  natural  temples 
of  the  far  north,  and  beneath  its  touch  vener- 
able structures  that  had  withstood  centuries 
of  violence  showed  signs  of  disintegration. 
The  tyranny  of  man  over  woman  was  doomed 
when  it  appeared  that  in  Christ  there  was  no 
distinction  between  male  and  female,  but  that 
the  salvation  of  a  woman's  soul  was  as  pre- 
cious to  Him  and  cost  as  much  as  that  of  a 
man.  The  great  Jewish  system  of  temple, 
priesthood,  and  sacrifice  was  doomed  when 
it  was  reahzed  that  approach  to  God  might 
be  direct  and  without  the  mediation  of  priest 
or  the  offering  of  sacrifice.  The  iniquitous 
slavery  which  accounted  men  as  chattels,  and 
135 


136  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

prevailed  in  the  most  degrading  form,  was 
doomed  when  it  was  recognized  that  the  slave 
had  rights  which  no  purchase-money  could 
cancel,  that  he  was  his  master's  equal  in  the 
sight  of  God,  and  that  the  one  standard  be- 
fore the  eternal  throne  was  character. 

Times  of  transition  are  apt  to  breed  a 
license  of  individual  action  which  is  mistaken 
for  liberty.  It  was  so  in  the  French  Revolu- 
tion that  closed  the  last  century,  and  there 
are  clear  signs  that  the  same  tendency  is  as- 
serting itself  amid  that  momentous  revolution 
through  which  the  present  century  is  coming 
to  its  close.  Not  otherwise  was  it  when  Paul 
wrote  his  letters  to  Corinth  and  to  other 
churches.  The  ancient  landmarks  were  be- 
ing removed  and  the  bands  of  society  slack- 
ened. What  wonder,  then,  that  men  thought 
the  time  had  come  for  escaping  from  every 
yoke  that  chafed,  from  every  burden  that 
galled?  There  was  a  strong  tendency  to 
hold  the  marriage  tie  lightly,  to  attempt 
abrupt  and  revolutionary  changes  in  church 
relations,  and,  above  all,  to  anticipate  the  re- 
sult of  those  social  changes  which  were  slowly 
taking  shape.  Against  all  these  the  apostle 
strenuously  set  himself  (i  Cor.  vii.  10-24). 

His  one  advice  was,  "Stay  as  you  are." 
If  a  beHever  is  married  to  an  unbeliever,  so 
long  as  the  latter  is  willing  to  abide  in  the 
marriage  tie  let  it  be  carefully  and  honorably 


STAY  WHERE    YOU  ARE  137 

maintained.  Whatever  was  done,  the  home 
life  must  be  watchfully  guarded,  for  the  sake 
of  each  and  of  the  children.  Let  not  the 
Christian  Jew  be  eager  to  cast  aside  all  the 
rehgious  restraints  and  sacred  associations  of 
the  old  Hebrew  religion,  and  let  not  the  Gen- 
tile convert  be  in  a  hurry  to  adopt  the  rites 
and  usages  of  the  Old  Testament  ritual,  since 
it  was  waxing  old  and  was  ready  to  vanish 
away.  Let  not  the  slave  adopt  any  revolu- 
tionary methods  to  become  free,  nor  plot  for 
the  overthrow  of  the  system  of  society  which 
laid  so  heavy  a  yoke  on  him  and  his  class. 
Each  was  urged  to  abide  in  the  calling  in 
which  he  was  called.  There  are  lessons  here 
for  us  all. 

As  TO  THE  Home  Life.— Very  often  the 
ties  of  the  home  life  seem  very  irksome  to 
young  people.  They  fret  at  the  duties  they 
have  to  perform,  the  hours  they  have  to  keep, 
the  arbitrary  restraint  to  which  they  have  to 
submit.  Then  they  get  restless  and  want  to 
get  away,  or  they  become  taciturn  and  sullen, 
shutting  themselves  up  as  far  as  possible  in  a 
shell.  In  some  towns  in  England  there  is 
a  growing  tendency  on  the  part  of  young 
people  to  leave  their  parents'  home  and  take 
lodgings  for  themselves.  This  is  a  serious 
mistake.  It  is  not  fair  to  those  who  have 
sacrificed  much  for  long  years  when  no  return 
was  possible,  and  it  evades  the  blessed  dis- 


138  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

cipline  of  the  home  hfe,  which  is  of  priceless 
value  to  us  all. 

What  the  angel  of  God  said  to  Hagar  I 
would  repeat  to  all  those  who  are  meditating 
escape  from  uncongenial  conditions :  **  Re- 
turn and  submit,"  even  though  dispositions 
chafe  and  irritate  and  the  bit  hurts  the  tender 
mouth.  Of  course  there  may  be  cases  in 
which  God  has  clearly  shown  that  it  is  His 
will  for  the  stern  disciphne  to  cease,  and  has 
opened  a  door  of  escape.  In  that  case  the 
apostle  tells  us  by  all  means  to  use  it  (21) ; 
but  if  the  door  is  not  open  we  are  not  to  force 
it ;  if  the  yoke  is  not  broken  we  are  not  to 
shirk  it.  When  God  says,  "  Go  forth  free," 
we  have  no  hesitation  in  obeying,  but  we 
must  always  distrust  the  dictates  of  our  own 
choice  and  caprice. 

How  knowest  thou  that  thou  hast  not  been 
placed  in  that  home  to  save  the  children,  to 
win  the  younger  brothers  and  sisters  for  God, 
to  turn  the  heart  of  some  disobedient  one  to 
the  wisdom  of  the  just?  Stay  there,  then, 
till  God  says  your  work  is  done  and  you  are 
at  liberty  to  go  elsewhere  to  be  a  vessel  for 
His  holy  use. 

As  TO  THE  Church  Life.  —  On  the  whole 
it  is  best  to  remain  in  the  church  in  which  we 
received  our  earliest  religious  impressions. 
It  is,  speaking  generally,  detrimental  to  the 
best  interests  of  the  religious  life  to  be  per- 


ST  A  V  WHERE    YOU  ARE  139 

petually  shifting,  seeking  new  pastures,  and 
running  from  one  church  to  another.  We 
may  sometimes  have  to  go  forth  as  a  protest, 
or  we  may  be  driven  out ;  but  in  such  cases 
our  course  is  generally  clear  and  unmistaka- 
ble if  we  seek  to  act  as  the  glory  of  Christ 
and  the  interests  of  His  kingdom  demand. 

As  TO  OUR  Spheres  of  Daily  Life. — 
"  Brethren,  let  each  man,  wherein  he  was 
called,  therein  abide  with  God."  We  often 
hear  of  ''the  call"  to  the  ministry,  or  a 
woman's  vocation  to  be  a  nurse,  and  attach 
a  sacred  significance  to  the  words.  But  we 
speak  more  hghtly  of  a  man's  "  calling  "  and 
hardly  reaHze  how  much  meaning  underlies 
the  phrase.  Let  each  of  us  beheve  that  our 
daily  business  is  the  result  of  a  divine  call. 
The  call  may  have  come  through  the  choice 
of  a  parent,  the  prompting  of  our  own  desire, 
a  newspaper  advertisement,  or  what  may  seem 
chance ;  but  behind  it  and  through  it  lay  the 
choice  and  call  of  God.  Dare  to  believe  this, 
and  that  you  are  in  the  direct  hne  of  obedi- 
ence when  you  come  to  the  duties  that  ring 
out  their  summons  as  each  day  returns. 

Called  by  God  to  be  a  physician  or  a  sur- 
geon ;  called  to  make  chairs  or  boots ;  called 
to  be  a  domestic  servant  or  a  laborer ;  called 
to  be  a  merchant  or  a  mechanic.  He  who 
called  Isaiah  to  be  a  prophet  has  called  thee, 
and  all  that  thou  hast  to  do  is  to  abide  in 


140  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

Him,  to  count  on  His  companionship  and 
fellowship,  to  do  all  as  beneath  His  eye  and 
for  His  approval,  and  while  doing  the  most 
trivial  duties  to  be  each  day  growing  sweeter, 
stronger,  nobler. 

The  other  day  I  saw  some  novices  taking 
lessons  in  bicycHng.  They  went  round  and 
round  the  same  track,  but  at  each  circuit  they 
were  improving  in  their  knowledge  and  use 
of  their  machines.  So  in  common  hfe  we 
may  have  to  do  the  same  thing  with  monoto- 
nous repetition,  but  in  the  meanwhile  we  may 
be  growing  in  grace  and  the  knowledge  of 
God.  If  God  opens  the  door  to  something 
else,  of  course  use  it ;  but  if  not,  do  not  fret 
or  chafe.  Even  if  others  pass  thee,  keep 
quiet  and  humble  and  go  on  preparing  thy- 
self for  thy  great  opportunity;  and  when  it 
suddenly  comes  to  thee,  as  it  came  to  Joseph, 
thou  wilt  be  prepared  by  thy  behavior  in  the 
prison  to  pass  to  the  palace  with  its  larger 
opportunities. 


XXII 
WHAT   HAVE   YOU   TO    GIVE  ? 

"  Silver  and  gold  have  I  none;  but  such  as  I  have 
give  I  thee."— Acts  hi.  6. 

There  was  a  great  contrast  between  the 
Gate  Beautiful,  standing  on  the  top  of  the 
flight  of  fifteen  steps  that  led  from  the  lower 
terraces  of  the  temple  to  the  sacred  level  of 
the  holy  shrine,  and  the  helpless  beggar  that 
lay  at  its  foot.  It  towered  far  above  his  pros- 
trate form,  composed  of  the  finest  metal  of 
the  world,  while  he  lived  upon  the  scant  gifts 
of  charity ;  it  needed  twenty  men  to  roll  its 
exquisitely  carved  leaves  backward  and  for- 
ward, while  friends  as  poor  as  himself  daily 
carried  to  the  same  spot  his  wasted  form. 
Such  a  contrast  obtains  still  between  the 
beautiful  gates  of  nature's  temple,  the  beau- 
tiful gates  of  song  and  art  and  music,  the 
beautiful  gates  of  dawn  and  eve  and  child- 
hood, as  contrasted  with  the  misery  that  sin 
has  brought  on  those  who  lie  broken  and 
helpless  on  the  steps  trodden  by  the  world's 
life. 

141 


142  SAVED  ANh  KEPT 

But  there  was  a  greater  contrast  still  be- 
tween the  appearance  of  the  two  apostles,  as 
they  chmbed  those  steps  at  the  hour  of  after- 
noon prayer,  and  the  resources  concealed  be- 
neath their  humble  guise.  To  the  eye  of  the 
world  they  were  but  two  poor  peasants ;  be- 
fore the  gaze  of  God's  angels  they  stood 
possessed  of  a  secret  which  would  unlock 
the  measureless  stores  of  eternity. 

When  first  they  stood  against  him,  bidding 
him  look  on  them,  he  thought  that  they  would 
give  him  alms.  Quaint  Andrew  Bonar  sug- 
gests that  he  may  have  somehow  heard  of  the 
recent  distribution  among  the  members  of 
that  early  church  and  have  thought  that  he 
was  now  to  receive  a  share.  If  so  he  must 
have  been  disappointed  to  learn  that,  though 
so  much  had  passed  through  the  hands  of  its 
foremost  leaders,  not  one  coin  had  stuck  to 
the  lining  of  their  pockets,  and  it  was  news 
to  him  that  penniless  men  had  something  to 
give  that  could  not  be  counted  up  in  coins  of 
precious  metal.  "  Silver  and  gold  have  I 
none  ;  but  such  as  I  have  give  I  thee." 

What  comfort  is  suggested  by  these  words 
to  some  of  us,  who  have  neither  the  silvery 
tongue  of  eloquence  nor  the  golden  ore  of 
knowledge,  who,  like  Moses  or  Jeremiah,  cry, 
"Behold,  I  am  a  child;  I  cannot  speak!" 
Believe  me,  young  people,  that  gold  and 
silver  are  the  last   things  that  men  need. 


WHAT  HAVE    YOU   TO   GIVE?      143 

They  can  dispense  with  these  more  quickly 
than  with  the  gifts  of  the  heart ;  and  though 
you  have  none  of  them,  either  Hterally  or 
symboKcally,  though  you  have  nothing  to 
distinguish  you  in  the  way  of  talent  or  gift, 
though  you  may  account  yourself  unable  to 
supply  the  lack  that  cries  aloud  from  the 
heart  of  your  fellows,  yet  you  may  have  and 
give  that  which  silver  could  not  purchase  and 
gold  could  not  procure,  and  compared  with 
which  the  rubies  of  the  mine  would  be  worth- 
less as  bags  of  pebbles. 

Remember  that  the  world  has  been  en- 
riched more  through  the  poverty  of  its  saints 
than  by  the  wealth  of  its  millionaires.  Re- 
member that  the  men  whose  hymns  and 
words  and  achievements  are  the  priceless 
heritage  of  the  ages — that  the  martyrs,  con- 
fessors, reformers,  prophets,  teachers,  and 
leaders  of  men — have  all  been  classed  in  that 
great  and  noble  brotherhood  which  Peter 
represented  when  he  became  the  medium 
through  which  the  wealth  of  paradise  passed 
into  the  common  coinage  of  earth.  These 
men  have  given  blood,  tears,  spiritual  im- 
pulses, faith,  hope,  love.  What  have  you  to 
give? 

What  did  Peter  include  in  the  expression 
"  such  as  I  have  "  ?  You  may  be  sure  he  did 
not  refer  to  his  vehemence,  petulance,  or 
cowardice— to  those  outbreaks  of  his  own 


144  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

idiosyncrasy  which  had  marred  the  happy 
years  of  relationship  with  his  Lord;  these 
would  have  been  a  sorry  gift  indeed.  Better 
not  to  live  than  to  pass  on  such  an  inheri- 
tance. But  he  must  have  referred  to  the 
blessed  gifts  which  had  come  to  hand 
through  the  grace  of  his  risen  Lord.  Had 
He  not  gone  up  on  high  and  received  gifts 
for  men,  even  for  the  rebellious?  Had  He 
not  received  of  the  Father  the  supreme  gift 
of  the  Holy  Ghost?  Had  He  not,  and  only 
recently,  shed  Him  forth  in  a  golden  shower 
of  blessing?  Had  not  the  tongue  of  fire 
settled  on  Peter's  head  and  the  gift  of  a  new 
courage  filled  his  soul  ?  Was  he  not  conscious 
of  a  faith  in  the  name  of  Christ  through 
which  lame  men  might  be  made  whole,  of  a 
love  which  would  bear  and  endure  all  things 
for  Christ's  sake,  of  a  hope  in  the  times  of 
refreshing  which  must  surely  come  again  to 
a  parched  and  dying  world?  These  things 
he  had,  and  he  knew  he  had  them,  and  he 
knew  that  he  could  give  them  also.  The  Son 
of  God  had  come  and  given  him  an  under- 
standing and  a  power,  a  realizing  sense  of  the 
Unseen  and  an  unction  from  the  Holy  One. 
Rich  in  these  sacred  gifts,  he  felt  that  he 
might  be  a  spendthrift  in  their  distribution ; 
dowered  as  God's  heir,  he  could  imitate  the 
generosity  of  God,  who  giveth  to  all  men 
liberally,  and  upbraideth  not. 


WHAT  HAVE    YOU  TO   GIVE?      145 

Have  you  anything  like  this?  Is  there 
aught  in  your  heart  with  which  to  enrich  this 
poor  and  needy  world?  All  around  the 
beggars  He,  with  their  whining  voices,  their 
thin  outstretched  hands,  their  helplessness  and 
misery.  Are  you  preparing  to  go  into  the 
great  temple  of  life  by  yourselves,  passing 
alone  through  the  beautiful  gate  of  early  man- 
hood and  womanhood?  or  will  you  pick  up 
the  lame  beggars  as  you  pass  by,  lifting  them 
up  and  leading  them  in  with  you,  your  joy 
being  doubled  by  theirs,  and  your  praises 
being  all  the  sweeter  because  you  hear  them 
praising  God  and  saying,  as  they  hold  you 
tightly,  "  Oh,  magnify  the  Lord  with  me,  and 
let  us  exalt  His  name  together  "? 

What  have  you,  young  maidens,  with 
which  to  enrich  and  bless  the  world?  See 
to  it  that  you  seek  and  obtain  from  the  risen 
Christ  something  which  all  the  culture  of 
these  modem  days  can  never  give— the 
modest  purity,  the  patient  love,  the  encou- 
ragement of  an  invincible  hope.  Beauty  in 
art  or  dress  or  face  cannot  heal  the  gaping 
wounds  of  men.  If  these  be  all  they  will  He 
at  the  Beautiful  Gate  unhelped.  But  Christ 
will  give  you  that  which,  while  it  costs  you 
nothing  to  receive,  will  make  the  lame  leap 
as  a  hart  and  the  tongue  of  the  dumb  sing. 

What  have  you,  young  men?  See  to  it 
that  in  Jesus  Christ  you  get  that  purity,  that 


146  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

manly  strength,  that  authority  to  cast  out 
devils,  that  power  in  prayer,  which  are  char- 
acteristic of  the  highest  hfe  possible  to  men. 
You  may  get  gold  as  the  years  pass,  but  this 
will  not  make  you  more  able  to  bless  men 
than  you  are  to-day,  when  as  yet  you  own 
nothing  of  the  wealth  of  the  world.  Poor, 
you  may  make  many  rich  if  you  have  found 
the  pearl  of  great  price  and  by  faith  have 
learned  to  avail  yourself  of  the  unsearchable 
stores  treasured  in  the  divine  Redeemer. 

Passing  through  the  Vatican  on  one  occa- 
sion, Thomas  Aquinas  came  on  the  pope 
superintending  the  counting  of  a  great  dona- 
tion. '"  See,"  said  the  pope,  "  the  church  has 
left  behind  the  days  in  which  she  said, '  Silver 
and  gold  have  I  none.'  "  ''  True,  holy  fa- 
ther," was  the  reply ;  "  but  can  she  say  to  the 
lame,  '  Rise  and  walk ' }  "  See  to  it,  young 
friends,  that  growing  wealth  does  not  rob  you 
of  the  divine  and  blessed  power  of  meeting 
the  needs  of  souls  that  money  cannot  touch. 


XXIII 
THE    PRESENCE    OF   GOD 

"  He  dwelleth  with  you,  and  shall  be  in  you."— 
John  xiv.  17. 

The  constant  realization  of  the  presence 
of  God  has  frequently  been  referred  to  by- 
men  of  holy  living  as  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant rules  in  sanctification.  It  includes 
everything.  If  we  could  once  acquire  the 
habit  of  living  in  the  sense  of  the  immediate 
nearness  of  God,  it  would  restrain  us  from 
evil  more  effectually  than  it  is  said  the  pres- 
ence of  a  Httle  child  will  do,  and  it  will  prompt 
us  to  all  that  would  be  well  pleasing  in  His 
sight.  But  it  was  easier  for  those  to  recog- 
nize it  habitually  who  were  undistracted  by 
the  perpetual  rush  of  modern  life  than  for  us, 
at  the  doors  of  whose  senses  so  many  impres- 
sions and  appeals  are  constantly  knocking. 
And  it  can  only  be  acquired  by  careful  at- 
tention to  the  temper  of  our  soul.  It  is  our 
present  purpose  to  show  how  this  habit  may 
be  formed. 

147 


148  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

In  the  early  morning,  as  soon  as  you  awake 
to  consciousness,  remember  that  you  are  in 
the  very  presence-chamber  of  God,  who  has 
been  watching  beside  you  through  the  long 
dark  hours.  Look  up  into  His  face  and 
thank  Him.  Consecrate  to  Him  those  first 
few  moments  before  you  leave  your  couch. 
Look  on  toward  the  coming  day  through  the 
golden  haze  of  the  hght  that  streams  from  the 
angel  of  His  presence.  You  can  forecast 
very  largely  what  your  difficulties  are  likely 
to  be,  the  quarters  from  which  you  may  be 
attacked,  the  burdens  that  may  need  carry- 
ing. Take  care  not  to  view  any  of  these 
apart  from  God.  Be  sure  that  He  will  be 
between  you  and  them,  as  the  ship  is  between 
the  traveler  and  the  ocean,  be  it  fair  or  stormy. 

As  you  gird  yourself  for  the  day,  putting 
articles  of  clothing  upon  your  person,  remem- 
ber that  God  supplies  you  with  vesture  clean 
and  white,  with  the  meekness  and  gentleness 
of  Christ,  with  the  garments  of  salvation,  the 
robes  of  righteousness,  and  the  jewels  of 
Christian  virtue.  Do  not  look  at  these  things 
apart  from  Him,  but  remember  that  they  are 
attributes  and  graces  of  His  own  nature  with 
which  to  array  yourself.  And  above  all  put 
on  the  armor  of  light,  remembering  that  God 
is  light.  You  are  to  put  on  Christ,  who  is 
God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  and  you  are  to 
descend  from  your  room  into  the  arena  of 


THE  PRESENCE   OF  GOD  149 

daily  battle  as  one  who  is  endued  with  the 
beauty  of  His  character.  This  concentration 
of  thought  upon  God  during  the  act  of  dress- 
ing will  prepare  the  soul  for  those  acts  of 
adoration,  thanksgiving,  and  intercession 
which  arise  to  God  as  the  fragrant  incense 
of  the  temple. 

Amid  the  pressure  of  daily  life  trust  the 
Holy  Spirit,  who  is  emphatically  the  divine 
Remembrancer,  to  bring  all  things  to  your 
remembrance  and  to  recall  you  to  the  equi- 
poise of  your  consciousness  of  God.  There 
is  no  duty  in  life,  however  trivial  and  com- 
monplace, that  may  not  be  dignified  by  being 
rendered  to  God  as  our  bounden  duty  and 
service.  This  is,  indeed,  the  secret  of  lifting 
all  life  to  a  noble  and  happy  elevation.  To 
do  all  for  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  see  Him  stand- 
ing behind  every  human  relationship,  to  do 
the  meanest  and  most  irksome  things  because 
He  takes  them  as  service  rendered  to  Him- 
self, for  which  He  will  give  a  reward — this  is 
Christian  Hfe,  this  makes  the  presence  of  God 
real,  this  dignifies  the  sweeping  of  a  room. 

"  My  mother  asked  me  to  turn  the  mangle 
for  her,  and  I  didn't  want  to,"  said  a  girl  the 
other  day  ;  "but  I  thought  Jesus  was  standing 
against  it,  saying,  '  Do  it  for  Me! '  and  I  was 
glad ;  it  seemed  beautiful  to  do  it  for  Him." 

Your  master  may  be  gruff,  irritable,  and 
hard  to  please,  but  be  sure  that  in  obeying 


150  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

and  pleasing  him  as  far  as  conscience  admits 
you  are  serving  the  Lord  Christ.  Thus  every 
incident  in  daily  life  gives  an  opportunity  of 
practising  the  presence  of  God. 

Equally  in  our  hours  of  recreation  we  may 
set  the  Lord  always  before  us.  Remember 
that  it  is  said  of  the  elders  of  Israel  that  they 
saw  Jehovah,  and  there  was  under  His  feet 
as  it  were  the  paved  work  of  a  sapphire  stone ; 
they  beheld  God,  and  did  eat  and  drink. 
How  many  eat  and  drink  without  beholding 
God!  How  many  whose  consciences  were 
uneasy  might  behold  God  without  daring  to 
eat  and  drink!  Happiest  are  they  who  are 
so  at  rest  in  Him  that  they  do  not  hesitate 
to  perform  the  natural  functions  of  life  with 
perfect  ease,  though  all  the  while  they  recog- 
nize that  He  is  nearer  than  hands  or  feet, 
nearer  than  breathing.  The  sense  of  God's 
presence  would  check  immodesty,  levity, 
self-indulgence,  excess  in  eating  or  drinking, 
while  it  would  give  a  new  zest  to  all  that  was 
natural  and  innocent. 

**  Heaven  above  is  softer  blue, 

Earth  around  is  sweeter  green, 
Something  lives  in  every  hue 
Christless  eyes  have  never  seen. 

**  Birds  with  gladder  songs  o'erflow, 

Flowers  with  deeper  beauties  shine, 
Since  I  know,  as  now  I  know, 
I  am  His,  and  He  is  mine." 


THE  PRESENCE   OF  GOD  151 

Often  we  have  entered  a  room  which  we 
had  thought  to  be  filled  with  strangers.  The 
gathering  has  presented  no  special  attractions 
to  us  in  the  anticipation.  Suddenly  through 
the  crowd  we  have  beheld  the  face  of  one  we 
love— the  center  of  the  central  group,  ad- 
mired, his  least  word  eagerly  Hstened  to,  his 
every  movement  followed.  Immediately  the 
room  has  become  filled  with  that  one  pres- 
ence. All  fear  is  dispelled;  every  object 
glistens  with  a  new  light ;  there  is  a  charm 
which  neither  art  nor  music  could  yield. 
You  have  the  sense  that  your  presence  is  to 
him  what  his  is  to  you.  Such  is  the  differ- 
ence that  comes  to  the  soul  when  it  has 
learned  the  practice  of  the  presence  of  God. 

One  prime  means  of  realizing  the  presence 
of  God  is  to  recognize  that  everything  beau- 
tiful in  anything,  that  everything  lovely  in  any 
one,  that  any  radiant  gift  dropped  suddenly 
into  our  life,  is  due  to  Him — a  beam  from 
the  Father  of  hght,  a  flower  cast  from  His 
hand  on  our  path,  the  glint  of  His  smile. 
It  is  a  blessed  habit  to  look  steadfastly  away 
from  the  things  that  annoy  and  irritate,  in  the 
circumstances  and  persons  around  us,  to  the 
traits  that  are  pleasing  and  attractive.  Dwell 
on  these ;  count  that  in  everything  and  every 
one  there  is  something  that  God  can  love. 
Find  this  out.  Look  up  to  God  and  thank 
Him  for  it.     And  thus  the  beautiful  and  good 


152  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

will  be  a  ladder  of  gold  to  climb  into  His 
presence.  Often  a  box  of  flowers  coming 
into  my  room  has  startled  trifling  thoughts 
from  the  feeding-grounds  of  earth  to  take 
flight  with  the  rustle  of  wings  into  the  blue 
sky,  which  is  the  tabernacle  of  the  Most 
High. 

Similarly  bitter  and  disagreeable  things 
may  help  us  to  remember  God.  Just  be- 
cause they  are  so  hard  to  be  borne,  just  be- 
cause nothing  but  an  infinite  love  could  have 
permitted  them  to  come  in  order  to  make  us 
partakers  of  His  blessedness,  just  because 
they  cast  so  dark  a  shadow  on  our  lives,  we 
are  compelled  the  more  to  recognize  that  God 
is  near.  I  suppose  God  never  seems  so  near 
as  in  dark  days,  when  we  can  only  live  a 
moment  at  a  time,  when  the  stealthy  tread  of 
the  nurse  is  the  only  sound  in  the  curtained 
room,  when  the  scenes  in  which  we  had 
played  so  conspicuous  a  part  have  faded,  and 
we  have  lost  our  interest  in  them,  and  we 
look  out  on  the  ocean  that  laps  against  the 
wall  of  the  room  in  which  we  lie.  God,  God, 
God  only !  Our  heart  cries  with  a  great  long- 
ing for  God— as  the  hart  for  the  water-brooks, 
as  the  babe  for  its  mother,  as  the  watcher  for 
the  dawn. 

It  is  a  frequent  complaint  that  the  spirit 
of  reverence  is  leaving  the  world.  Listen 
to  a  number  of  tourists  admiring  the  Alps. 


THE  PRESENCE   OF  GOD  153 

What  adjectives!  what  exclamations!  what 
a  htter  of  provisions,  the  paper  strewing  the 
deUcate  beauty  of  the  crystal  snow  and  the 
glacier's  blue  depths!  Note  the  majority  of 
travelers  entering  some  ancient  cathedral  or 
church,  much  more  eager  to  study  points  of 
architecture,  decoration,  or  restoration  than 
to  allow  the  spirit  of  worship  to  settle  down 
with  its  mysterious  spell.  Too  often  our  re- 
ligious services  lack  in  dignity,  the  sense  of 
the  infinite,  and  sink  to  the  level  of  a  per- 
formance or  play.  All  this  arises  from  the 
deficiency  we  have  been  complaining  of.  All 
would  be  altered  if  once  we  knew,  with  the 
knowledge  of  the  deepest  conviction,  that  we 
lived  and  moved  and  had  our  being  in  God. 
How  well  I  remember  when  first  I  visited 
Switzerland  that  my  bedroom  window,perched 
in  Les  Avants,  looked  across  the  blue  of  the 
Lake  of  Geneva  toward  that  noble  Hne  of 
snow-capped  mountains  that  border  its  south- 
ern shore.  It  seemed,  for  the  brief  fortnight 
that  I  Hved  there,  as  though  the  spell  of  that 
mighty  vision  held  me  enthralled.  I  slept 
and  awoke  and  wrote  and  conversed  as  one 
on  whom  a  new  dignity  had  fallen.  Could 
I  ever  be  mean  or  selfish  in  the  presence  of 
that  mystery  of  purity  and  solemnity  ?  This 
and  much  more  shall  be  the  temper  of  the 
soul  which,  by  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
has  learned  habitually  to  recognize  and  culti- 


154  SAVED  AND  KEPT 

vate  the  presence  of  God  as  revealed  in  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord. 

It  is  the  special  prerogative  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  impart  this  to  loving  and  believing 
souls.  He  loves  to  make  Jesus  real,  to  bring 
all  things  to  our  remembrance,  to  open  blind 
eyes. 


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